T.  C.  Smith 


The  Credentials  of  the 
Booh  of  Mormon  and 
•  Mormoniss 


,  APR  20  1950 


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THE  CREDENTIALS  OF  THE 

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3    A  CRITICAL    L 
STUDY 


9t ugust  1912 


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237  WEST  FIRST  AVENUE,  DENVER,  COLORADO 


Zo  tbe  IReaber 


This  work  is  a  Compendium  of  Mormonism,  its  history, 
its  prophet,  its  book  and  its  status  of  today.  It  proposes 
to  put  into  the  hands  of  Christians,  in  a  cheap  and  por- 
table form,  such  data  as  will  be  an  answer  to  the  claims 
of  the  Mormon  Missionary  and  an  antidote  to  his  doctrines. 

The  American  people  are  stolidly  indifferent  to  the 
persistent  Mormon  propaganda  carried  on  among  them. 
Twelve  to  fifteen  hundred  missionaries,  constantly  at 
work,  have  distributed  175,000  copies  of  the  Book  of  Mor- 
mon and  millions  of  pieces  of  literature,  in  the  United 
States.  Something  of  their  activity  may  be  demonstrated 
by  any  minister  asking  his  congregation  how  many  have 
been  called  upon  by  the  Mormon  Missionary,  and  seeing 
the  great  number  of  hands  that  will  go  up. 

Another  and  indeed  a  principal  purpose  in  writing 
this  work  has  been  to  make  it  a  missionary  force  in 
Utah.  One  thousand  copies  of  this  number  have  been  set 
aside  to  send  to  Mormon  readers  as  soon  as  their  names 
and  addresses  can  be  obtained.  The  Latter  Day  Saints 
may  help  further  this  purpose  by  sending  names  of  friends 
whom  they  would  like  to  have  read  them.  The  number  is 
limited,  and  "first  come  first  served." 

The  pamphlet  form  has  been  chosen  instead  of  a  book 
because  of  the  advantage  it  offers  of  wide  distribution. 
Each  number  will  have  a  completeness,  or  finality  of  its 
own,  so  that  each  will  be  a  definite  message.  Ten  to  fif- 
teen copies  of  this  number  may  be  sent  out  for  the  price 
of  a  book,  speaking  to  ten  times  as  many  people. 

And  many  people  will  be  persuaded  to  buy  and  read 
a  pamphlet,  who  would  not  think  of  buying  the  book. 

The  writer  has  many  friends  among  the  Mormons. 
6ome  of  them  will  remember  the  friendly  tilts  they  had 
with  him,  both  in  public  and  private.  They  will  not  be 
offended  at  receiving  this,  for  it  is  the  message  of  a 
friend,  not  the  attack  of  an  enemy.  Read  it,  and  answer 
back  in  kind,  if  the  spirit  moves  to  do  so. 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  writer  offers  no  apology  for  this  book.  Mormonism  is  a  per- 
petually live  question,  and  will  remain  so  for  years.  It  has  an  im- 
pressive vitality.  It  is  bold,  aggressive,  intolerant.  It  can  make  no 
compromise  with  Christianity,  nor  Christianity  with  it.  They  are  in- 
compatible, as  much  so  as  freedom  and  slavery.  The  Mormon  church 
is  founded  upon  theocracy,  the  church  of  God  upon  democracy.  No 
freedom  of  discussion  is  possible  under  a  priesthood  that  graduates 
up  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest,  which  highest  is  God's  sole  mouth- 
piece. When  God  speaks,  all  discussion  must  cease.  It  is  either  sub- 
mission or  apostasy. 

This  study  goes  far  beyond  any  preceding  attempt  to  get  at  the 
origin,  character  and  matter  of  the  Book  of  Mormon.  It  confines  it- 
self as  closely  to  that  one  thing  as  the  nature  of  the  examination  will 
permit. 

Joseph  Smith  comes  under  investigation  as  author  and  his  his- 
tory is  given  and  his  character  delineated  only  so  far  as  his  history 
reflects  light  on  his  book,  and  his  book  reveals  him.  The  later  history 
of  the  people,  their  peculiar  customs,  the  political  questions  involved, 
the  system  of  religious  socialism  which  binds  the  members  together 
and  their  peculiar  doctrines  and  practices  are  discussed  incidentally, 
and  only  where  they  elucidate  the  book  under  examination. 

The  objective  point  is  the  Book  of  Mormon.  Is  it  true,  or  false? 
If  true,  Mormonism  is  true  and  invulnerable.  If  false,  neither  logic, 
nor  faith,  nor  prayer,  can  save  it.  Mormon  writers  have  often  con- 
ceded this.     They  accept  the  alternative;  so  must  we  all. 

"If  the  origin  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  could  be  proved  to  be 
other  than  that  set  forth  by  Joseph  Smith;   if  the  book  itself 
could  be  proved  to  be  other  than  it  claims  to  be,  *  *  *  then 
the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter  Day  Saints  and  its  mes- 
sage and  doctrines,  *  *  must  fall;    for  if  that  book  be  other 
than  it  claims  to  be;  if  its  origin  be  other  than  that  ascribed 
to  it  by  Joseph   Smith,  then  Joseph  says   that   which   is   not 
true;    he    is   a    false    prophet    of   false    prophets;    and   all    he 
taught,  and  all  his  claims  to  inspiration  and  divine  authority, 
are  not  only  vain,  but  wicked;  and  all  that  he  did  is  not  only 
useless,    but    mischievous,    beyond    human    comprehension." — 
Eld.  B.  H.  Roberts:   Preface  to  New  Witness  for  God. 
There  are  two  ways  of  stating  a  case  or  of  arguing  a  matter.    One 
is   the   method    of   the    controversialist,   who   is    striving   for   victory, 
but     not     searching     for     truth.       We     do     not     follow     that.       The 
other  is  the  method  of  the  seeker  after  truth.     He  is  calm,  dispas- 


sionate,  clear,  tearless,  but  never  vindictive  nor  supercilious.  He 
gives  his  opponent  credit  for  honesty  as  to  his  convictions  and  faith, 
and  weighs  his  reasons  conscientiously. 

This  study  may  be,  doubtless  will  be,  a  disappointment  to  the 
ultras  of  both  sides.  There  is  no  malice  in  it,  no  vituperation,  no  in- 
vectives, no  hysterics.  It  would  be  useless  to  claim  that  prejudice  has 
no  place  in  it.  Our  prejudices  are  our  second  nature.  They  are  in- 
evitable. A  presentation  of  a  matter  of  this  kind,  without  influence 
from  former  convictions,  would  be  superhuman,   divine. 

Mormons  will  not  like  the  book,  for  it  takes  a  straight  course 
through  a  tangled  maze,  having  for  its  one  aim,  the  discovery  of  the 
eternal  boundary  lines. 

Truth  and  error,  though  they  may  be  mingled  in  human  state- 
ments, never  lie  within  the  same  limitations;  they  always  occupy 
different  and  antagonistic  positions. 

The  arguments  that  Mormons  advance  to  justify  their  belief,  have 
been  carefully  considered,  weighed,  and  their  values  estimated.  These 
have  not  been  taken  up,  specifically,  except  in  a  few  instances,  but 
they  all  have  their  place  in  the  general  argument. 

The  Book  of  Mormon  must  come  to  us  not  only  untainted  by 
proved  fraud  or  deception,  but  also  free  from  the  suspicion  of  it. 
There  must  be  no  room  for  imposture.  For  if  it  be  true,  its  appear- 
ance in  the  world  is  as  momentous  a  fact  in  human  history,  as  that 
of  the  New  Testament.  A  world's  salvation  by  restoration,  depends 
upon  it.  Its  credibility,  therefore,  as  a  divine  revelation,  must  be 
absolutely  unimpeachable. 

At  every  step  of  this  investigation  we  are  virtually  asking  this 
question:  Could  Joseph  Smith,  with  the  help  of  other  men,  or  with- 
out it,  have  written  or  done  this?  Was  God  a  necessary  part  in  the 
transaction? 

If  we  find  that  the  Book  of  Mormon  can  be  accounted  for  by 
human  agency,  without  divine  assistance,  if  its  marvels  rest  upon 
mere  credulity  and  are  not  sustained  by  sound  reasons — that  is  if 
one  must  lay  aside  his  common  sense  and  stultify  his  intelligence  to 
believe  them — the  book  must  and  will  be  rejected  by  people  of  in- 
telligence. 

This  first  number  is  the  preface  to  our  Study.  It  is  an  examina- 
tion of  the  External  Evidences  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,  a  critical  sur- 
vey of  the  history  preceding  and  accompanying  its  coming  forth.  We 
take  up  the  book  itself  in  the  next  number. 

The  designation,  Mormon,  is  used  in  no  invidious  sense,  but  be- 
cause it  is  short,  expressive  and  accepted  by  that  people. 

In  writing,  the  members  of  the  Church  of  the  Latter  Day  Saints 
in  Utah  are  in  mind. 


THE  COMING  FORTH  OF  THE  BOOK 
OF  MORMON. 

It  is  only  fair  that  one  accused  as  Joseph  Smith  has  been,  should 
be  permitted  to  speak  for  himself.  We,  therefore,  give  his  own  ac- 
count of  himself  and  his  book,  abridged  somewhat,  but  not  to  the 
prejudice  of  his  story — as  we  find  it  in  his  Autobiography: 

"I  was  born  Dec.  23,  1805,  in  Sharon,  Vt.  My  father,  Joseph 
Smith,  moved  to  Palmyra,  N.  Y.,  when  I  was  in  my  tenth  year;  after 
about  four  years  in  Palmyra,  he  moved  to  Manchester  in  the  same 
county. 

"Some  time  after  we  moved  to  Manchester,  there  was  an  unusual 
religious  excitement,  beginning  with  the  Methodists,  but  soon  became 
general  among  all  sects.  The  whole  country  was  affected  and  great 
multitudes  united  with  the  different  churches. 

"This  created  no  small  division  among  the  people,  some  crying, 
'Lo,  here!'  and  others  'Lo,  there!'  These  converts  expressed  great 
love  for  one  another  and  the  clergy  manifested  great  zeal  to  get  every- 
body converted,  yet  when  the  converts  began  to  file  off,  some  to  .one 
party  and  some  to  another,  these  good  feelings  were  shown  to  be 
more  pretended  than  real,  priest  contending  with  priest  and  convert 
with  convert,  and  their  good  feelings,  if  they  had  any,  were  entirely 
lost  in  strife  of  words  and  contest  of  opinions. 

"I  was  at  this  time  in  my  fifteenth  year,  and  my  father's  family 
was  proselyted  to  the  Presbyterian  faith,  four  of  them,  my  mother, 
Lucy,  my  brothers,  Hyrum  and  Samuel,  and  my  sister.  Sophronia,  join- 
ing that  church. 

(1)  "I  was  called  to  serious  reflections  and  suffered  great  uneasi- 
ness. Still  I  kept  myself  aloof  from  all  parties,  though  I  attended 
meetings  as  occasion  would  permit. 

"In  time  I  got  somewhat  partial  to  the  Methodists  and  I  felt  some 
desire  to  join  them;  but  so  great  was  the  confusion  and  strife,  that 
it  was  impossible  for  a  person  as  young  as  I  was  and  unacquainted 
with  men  and  things  to  come  to  any  certain  conclusion  who  was  right 
and  who  was  wrong. 

"In  the  midst  of  this  tumult  I  often  said  to  myself,  what  is  to  be 
done?  Who  of  these  parties  are  right  and  who  wrong,  or  are  they  all 
wrong?    If  any  one  of  them  is  right,  how  shall  I  know  it? 

"While  laboring  under  this  difficulty,  I  was  one  day  reading  the 


Epistle  of  James  1:5:  "If  any  of  you  lack  wisdom  let  him  ask  of  God, 
who  giveth  to  all  men  liberally  and  upbraideth  not,  and  it  shall  be 
given  him."  Never  did  any  scripture  come  with  more  power  to  the 
heart  of  man,  than  this  to  mine.  I  reflected  on  it  again  and  again, 
knowing  that  if  any  one  needed  wisdom  from  God,  I  did. 

"At  last  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  I  must  remain  in  darkness, 
or  else  ask  of  God.     This  I  determined  to  do. 

(2)  "In  accordance  with  this  determination  to  ask  of  God,  I  retired 
to  the  woods  on  the  morning  of  a  beautiful  day  in  the  spring  of  1820. 
It  was  the  first  time  in  my  life  I  had  ever  made  such  an  attempt,  for 
amid  all  my  anxiety  I  had  never  as  yet  made  the  attempt  to  pray 
vocally. 

"Reaching  the  place  I  had  in  mind  to  go,  and  looking  around  to 
see  that  I  was  alone,  I  kneeled  down  and  began  to  pray. 

(3)  "I  had  scarcely  done  so,  when  immediately  I  was  seized  upon 
by  some  power  which  entirely  overcame  me,  so  great  indeed  as  to 
bind  my  tongue  so  that  I  could  not  speak. 

"Thick  darkness  gathered  around  me,  and  it  seemed  to  me  for  a 
time  I  was  doomed  to  sudden  destruction.  Exerting  all  my  powers  to 
call  upon  God  to  deliver  me,  just  when  I  was  ready  to  sink  in  despair, 
just  at  this  moment  of  my  greatest  alarm,  I  saw  a  pillar  of  light  ex- 
actly over  my  head,  above  the  brightness  of  the  sun,  which  descended 
gradually  until  it  fell  upon  me. 

(4)  "Immediately  I  found  myself  delivered  from  the  enemy  that 
bound  me,  and  I  saw  two  personages,  whose  brightness  and  glory 
defy  all  description,  standing  above  me  in  the  air.  One  of  them  spoke 
to  me,  calling  me  by  name,  and,  pointing  to  the  other,  said.  "This  is 
my  beloved  Son,  hear  him.' 

"No  sooner  could  I  speak  than  I  asked  them  which  of  all  the  sects 
was  right,  and  which  I  should  join.  His  answer  was  that  I  must 
join  none  of  them  for  they  were  all  wrong;  their  creeds  were  an 
abomination  and  those  professors  were  all  corrupt. 
(3)  "When  I  came  to  myself  again,  I  found  myself,  lying  on  my 
back  and  looking  up  to  heaven. 

"A  few  days  after  this  vision,  I  gave  a  Methodist  preacher  an  ac- 
count of  it.  I  was  greatly  surprised  at  his  behavior,  for  he  treated 
my  story  not  lightly,  but  with  contempt,  saying  it  was  all  of  the  devil, 
there  were  no  such  things  as  visions  or  revelations  in  these  days. 

(5)  "My  telling  the  story  excited  much  prejudice  against  me 
among  professors  of  religion,  and  caused  me  much  persecution.  And 
although  I  was  only  an  obscure  boy,  yet  men  of  high  standing  took 


sufficient  notice  to  excite  the  public  mind  against  me,  and  create  a 
bitter  persecution.  It  caused  me  serious  reflection  and  often  has  since, 
that  an  obscure  boy  doomed  to  get  his  livelihood  by  daily  labor, 
should  be  thought  a  character  of  sufficient  importance  to  attract  the 
attention  of  the  great  ones  of  the  most  popular  sects,  in  such  a  man- 
ner as  to  excite  the  spirit  of  the  most  bitter  persecution. 

"Nevertheless  it  was  a  fact  that  I  had  seen  a  vision  and  I  felt 
like  Paul,  who  related  how  he  saw  a  light  and  heard  a  voice,  although 
few   believed   him. 

"So  it  was  with  me.  I  was  hated  and  persecuted  for  saying  I  had 
seen  a  vision,  yet  it  was  true.  And  while  they  were  reviling  and 
persecuting  me,  I  said  in  my  heart,  'Why  persecute  me  for  telling  the 
truth?'     Who  am  I  that  I  could  withstand  God?'    .    .    . 

"I  continued  to  perform  my  common  vocations  of  life  until  Sept. 
21,  1823,  all  the  time  suffering  persecutions. 

(6)  "During  the  time  from  the  vision  to  1823,  having  been  forbid- 
den to  join  any  religious  sect  and  being  of  tender  years,  persecuted 
by  those  who  ought  to  have  been  my  friends  and  to  have  entreated 
me  kindly,  and  if  they  believed  me  to  be  deluded  to  have  endeavored 
kindly  to  have  reclaimed  me,  I  was  left  to  all  kinds  of  temptations; 
and  mingling  with  all  kinds  of  society,  I  frequently  fell  into  many 
foolish  errors,  and  displayed  the  weakness  of  youth  and  the  foibles 
of  human  nature;  which,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  led  me  into  diverse  temp- 
tations, offensive  in  the  sight  of  God.  Often  I  felt  condemned  for  my 
weakness  and  imperfections;  when  on  the  evening  of  the  above  men- 
tioned 21st  of  September,  after  I  had  retired  to  my  bed,  I  betook  my- 
self to  prayer  to  Almighty  God  for  forgiveness,  and  also  a  manifesta- 
tion of  my  state  and  standing  before  Him. 

(4)  "While  in  the  act  of  calling  upon  God,  I  discovered  a  light  in 
my  room,  increasing  in  brilliancy  until  the  room  was  lighter  than 
noonday.  Immediately  a  personage  appeared  at  my  bedside,  standing 
in  the  air.  He  had  on  a  loose  rode  of  whiteness  above  anything 
earthly  I  had  ever  seen,  and  his  whole  person  was  glorious  beyond 
description. 

(7)  "He  called  me  by  name,  and  said  he  was  a  messenger  sent 
from  God,  and  that  his  name  was  Moroni;  that  God  had  a  work  for 
me  to  do,  and  that  my  name  should  be  had  for  good  or  evil  among 
all  nations,  kindred  and  tongues. 

"He  said  there  was  a  book  written  upon  gold  plates,  giving  an 
account  of  the  former  inhabitants  of  this  continent  and  their  origin, 
and  containing  the  fulness  of  the  gospel;    also  two  stones  in  silver 


bows  fastened  to  a  breastplate,  called  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  were 
with  the  plates.  The  possession  of  these  stones  constituted  a  "seer" 
in  ancient  times  and  they  were  for  the  purpose  of  translating  the 
plates. 

"He  quoted  prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament,  first  the  third  chap- 
ter of  Malachi,  and  also  the  fourth  chapter  with  a  little  variation 
from  our  Bible.  In  addition  to  these  he  quoted  the  11th  chapter  of 
Isaiah,  saying  it  was  about  to  be  fulfilled;  also  the  22nd  and  23rd 
verses  of  the  3rd  chapter  of  Acts. 

"He  also  quoted  Joel  2:  IS  to  close,  saying  this  was  not  yet  ful- 
filled but  soon  would  be.  He  told  me  that  when  I  got  those  plates, 
for  the  time  was  not  yet,  I  should  not  show  them  to  any  person, 
neither  the  breastplate  with  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  except  as  1 
should  be  commanded;  if  I  did  I  should  be  destroyed. 

"While  he  was  talking,  I  saw  in  a  vision  the  place  where  the 
plates  were  deposited.  The  light  of  the  room  grew  dim  and  I  saw  him 
ascend  in  a  conduit  of  light  and  disappear. 

(The  vision  and  charges  with  some  additions,  were  repeated  three 
times.) 

"Again  he  ascended,  the  cock  crowed,  and  I  found  our  interview 
had  lasted  the  whole  night. 

(4)  "I  rose  and  went  to  work  as  at  other  times,  but  was  unable 
for  lack  of  strength;  seeing  which  my  father  told  me  to  go  home.  I 
started,  but  in  attempting  to  cross  the  fence  out  of  the  field,  my 
strength  failed  me,  and  I  fell  helpless  to  the  ground  where  I  lay  for 
a  time,  unconscious  of  anything. 

"The  first  thing  I  recollect  was  a  voice  speaking  to  me,  calling 
my  by  name;  and  on  looking  up  I  saw  the  same  messenger  standing 
over  me,  surrounded  by  light  as  before. 

"He  again  related  to  me  all  he  had  related  before,  and  com- 
manded me  to  go  to  my  father  and  tell  him  all 

"I  obeyed,  returned  to  my  father  and  rehearsed  the  whole  matter 
to  him.  He  assured  me  it  was  of  God  and  told  me  to  do  as  the  mes- 
senger commanded. 

"I  left  the  field  and  went  to  the  place  the  messenger  had  told  me 
the  plates  were  deposited,  which  I  knew  in  an  instant. 
(8)  "Near  Manchester,  Ontario  County,  New  York,  is  a  hill  of  con- 
siderable size,  the  most  elevated  of  any  in  the  neighborhood.  On  the 
west  side  of  the  hill,  under  a  stone  of  considerable  size,  lay  the  plates 
in  a  stone  box.  The  stone  was  thick  and  rounding  on  the  upper  side, 
thinner  at  the  edges,  the  middle  part  exposed. 


"Removing  the  earth,  I  fixed  a  lever  under  the  edge  and  raised 
the  rock,  and  there  I  saw  the  plates,  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  and 
the  breastplate.  I  made  an  effort  to  take  them  out  but  was  forbidden 
by  the  messenger,  and  was  told  that  the  time  to  get  them  would  not 
be  until  four  years  from  that  time.  I  was  to  come  to  the  place  one 
year  from  that  time  when  he  would  meet  me  again. 

"At  the  end  of  each  year,  I  went  and  at  each  time  found  the  mes- 
senger there  and  received  instruction  and  intelligence  from  him  re- 
specting what  the  Lord  was  going  to  do,  and  how  his  kingdom  was 
to  be  conducted  in  the  last  days. 

(9)  "*  *  *  In  the  month  of  October,  1825,  I  hired  with  an  old 
gentleman,  Josiah  Stoal,  of  Chenango  County.  He  had  heard  some- 
thing of  an  old  silver  mine  once  opened  by  the  Spaniards,  in  Harmony, 
Susquehanna  County,  Pennsylvania,  and  had  been  digging  to  discover 
it.  He  took  me  with  the  rest  of  his  hands,  to  dig  for  the  mine,  at 
which  I  continued  to  work  for  nearly  a  month,  without  success,  and 
finally  I  prevailed  with  him  to  cease  digging  for  it.  Hence  arose  the 
very  prevalent  story  of  my  having  been  a  money  digger. 

"During  the  time  I  was  thus  employed,  I  was  put  to  board  with  a 
Mr.  Isaac  Hale,  and  there  I  first  saw  my  wife  (his  daughter)  Emma 
Hale.  On  the  18th  of  June,  1827,  we  were  married,  while  I  was  yet 
employed  in  the  service  of  Mr.  Stoal. 

"Owing  to  my  continuing  to  assert  I  had  seen  a  vision,  persecu- 
tion still  followed  me,  and  my  wife's  family  were  very  much  opposed 
to  our  marriage,  for  which  reason  we  went  and  were  married  at  the 
house  of  Squire  Tarbill,  in  South  Bainbridge,  N.  Y.,  and  immediately 
went  to  my  father's,  and  farmed  with  him  that  season. 

"The  time  arrived  at  length  for  obtainnig  the  plates,  the  Urim 
and  the  Thummim  and  breastplate,  and  on  the  22nd  day  of  September, 
1827,  the  heavenly  messenger  delivered  them  to  me. 

(10)  "I  soon  found  out  why  I  had  received  such  strict  charge  to 
keep  them  safe,  for  no  sooner  was  it  known  that  I  had  them  than  the 
most  strenuous  exertions  were  made  and  stratagems  employed  to  get 
them  from  me.  Multitudes  were  on  the  alert  continually,  but  by  the 
wisdom  of  God  they  remained  safe  in  my  hands,  and  when,  according 
to  arrangement  the  messenger  called  for  them  I  delivered  them  up  to 
him  and  he  has  them  in  charge  until  this  day,  May  2,  1838." 


The  foregoing  record  has  been  given  quite  fully,  because  it  covers 
the  most  important  incidents  in  the  early  history  of  the  book.  The 
following  further  statement  as  to  the  plates  is  appended: 


(11)  The  records  were  engraved  on  plates  which  looked  like  gold, 
six  inches  by  eight  inches,  and  not  quite  so  thick  as  tin,  bound  to 
gether  like  the  leaves  of  a  book,  three  rings  running  through  the 
whole.  The  volume  was  about  six  inches  thick,  and  a  part  of  the 
leaves  were  sealed.  The  characters,  the  engravings,  were  small  but 
beautiful   in   form. 

With  the  records  was  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  two  transparent 
stones  set  in  the  rim  of  a  bow  and  fastened  to  a  breastplate. 

II. 

REVIEW  OF  FOREGOING  STORY. 

Having  given  Joseph  the  opportunity  to  speak  for  himself,  since 
we  can  not  cross-question  him,  we  will  examine  some  parts  of  his 
testimony.  The  figures  in  parenthesis  refer  back  to  like  figures  in 
his  story.  (1)  We  have  here  presented  to  us  a  boy  not  fifteen  years 
of  age,  inexperienced  and  even  non-religious,  hitherto,  very  unlettered, 
seriously  debating  in  his  own  mind  as  to  which  of  the  sects  was  right 
and  which  were  wrong,  with  all  the  gravity  and  seriousness  of  a 
mature  man.  He  does  not  seek  to  learn  about  them,  he  does  not  go 
to  any  minister  or  experienced  Christian  to  find  out,  as  would  have 
been  most  natural  for  him  to  do. 

Next,  he  betrays  indifference  as  to  his  own  personal  relation  to 
God;  he  hasn't  offered  up  a  single  prayer,  not  so  much  even  as  to  say, 
"Lord  be  merciful  to  me."  There  is  no  sign  of  repentance  or  con- 
fession. He  is  in  deep  perplexity,  not  as  to  himself,  but  as  to  others. 
So  he  goes  to  God,  not  to  inquire  what  he  must  do  to  be  saved,  but  to 
find  out  which  church  was  right.  We  know,  from  the  character  of  the 
preaching  of  that  day,  that  he  had  listened  to  many  earnest  pleas  to 
repent  of  his  sins  and  turn  to  God  who  will  have  mercy. 

His  course  was  so  unnnatural,  so  unusual  with  youths  who  are 
very  sensitive  to  sin,  and  so  affected  by  the  story  of  Christ's  suffering 
for  them,  that  they  have  no  thoughts  about  creeds  and  sects,  but 
simply  long  to  be  Christ's.  To  all  these  influences,  this  boy  in  his 
fifteenth  year,  presents  an  unfeeling  heart,  and  is  absorbed  in  the 
question,  "Which  sect  is  right?" 

We  must  be  excused  from  accepting  this  as  being  true  about  the 
boy;  it  was  a  characteristic  after-thought  of  the  man. 

Fortunately  he  gives  us  the  approximate  time  of  writing  this — 
May,  1838.  The  language  confirms  us  in  this  opinion,  for  it  is  the 
language  of  maturity,  not  of  youth. 

8 


(2)  Passing  on  further,  he  assures  us  he  had  never  before  at- 
tempted to  pray  vocally.  His  mother  says  he  had  never  read  the 
Bible  through  in  his  life  and  was  less  inclined  to  reading  books  than 
her  other  children.  If  Joseph  speaks  the  truth,  his  home  was  not  a 
home  of  prayer,  and  his  mother  had  never  taught  him  any  of  those 
simple  forms  of  petition,  which  open  the  doors  to  God  and  fix  the 
habit  of  prayer,  in  children. 

Evidently  he  was  not  fit  to  join  any  church,  although  he  assures 
us  he  was  inclined  to  the  Methodists.  He  was  not,  to  use  his  own 
afterwards  often  repeated  phrase,  "born  of  God." 

So,  when  he  did  attempt  to  pray,  it  was  not  for  a  new  heart,  but 
"Lord,  who  is  the  biggest  hypocrite?"  The  answer  he  says  he  got 
was  "they  are  all  wrong,  their  creeds  are  an  abomination,  and  these 
professors  are  all  corrupt." 

This  is  a  reflection  of  Joseph's  sentiments  of  1830  and  onward. 
His  method  of  warring  against  all  churches,  was  to  arraign  them  for 
heresy,  to  charge  them  with  apostasy  and  as  having  no  authority 
from  God  to  minister  in  His  name,  and  to  claim  that  he  alone  was  the 
messenger  whom  Heaven  had  ordained  to  restore  the  lost  gospel,  to 
re-establish  the  church  of  Christ,  to  usher  in  a  new  dispensation,  and 
to  save  mankind.  For  eight  years  he  had  been  uttering  these  pre- 
sumptuous claims,  and  now,  in  1838,  he  seeks  to  bring  in  the  testi- 
mony of  God,  to  confirm  his  word.  Someone — note  that  he  does  not 
say  it  was  God,  although  he  would  have  us  infer  it — declares  in  un- 
mistakable terms  of  the  whole  Christian  world,  "they  are  all  wrong  and 
corrupt."  Then  he  turns  to  his  followers  and  says,  "Haven't  I  been 
telling  you  so?" 

We  shall  find,  in  the  course  of  this  study,  that  Joseph  manufac- 
tured scripture  and  gave  forth  revelations  to  suit  himself  and  to  con- 
firm his  claims;  that  he  even  changed  his  own  revelations,  when 
changed  conditions  demanded  something  different. 

(3)  The  physical  phenomena  accompanying  his  visions,  have  raised 
the  scientific  question  whether  Joseph  was  not,  by  heredity,  subject 
to  some  form  of  epilepsy.  The  feeling  of  dread,  the  spasmodic  struggle 
with  the  spirit  of  evil,  the  appearance  of  light  about  him,  bright  per- 
sonages and  voices,  unconsciousness,  and  his  lying  upon  his  back,  are 
suggestive  of  epilepsy.  Prof.  Riley  has  treated  this  matter  fully  in 
his  Psychological  Study  of  Joseph,  the  Mormon   Prophet. 

It  is  well  to  remember  that  Joseph  Smith  is  only  one  of  many 
comparatively  recent  persons  who  have  claimed  visions  of  God  and 
revelations  fully  as  remarkable  as  his,  and  who  have  been  deceived, 

9 


by  subjective  delusions,  or  were  unmitigated  frauds.  The  ■  religious 
obsession,  either  that  the  person  is  a  special  messenger  from  God,  or 
even  God  Himself,  is  a  frequent  symptom  of  dementia  of  the  most 
obstinate  and  incurable  form.  Such  claims  do  not  call  for  faith  but 
for  scientific  investigation.  If  Joseph  Smith  was  a  true  prophet  of 
God,  he  differs  altogether  from  those  prophets  who  helped  to  make 
up  the  line  of  prophets  from  Samuel  to  John  the  Baptist. 

One  fact  impresses  us  deeply,  the  omission  of  independent  testi- 
mony of  his  mother  who  wrote  a  history  of  her  prophet  son,  but  fails 
to  corroborate  his  story.  What  mother  would  have  been  so  remiss, 
if  these  things  had  been  "hid  in  her  heart?" 

Yet  she  contents  herself,  when  it  comes  to  all  these  marvelous 
visions,  with  copying  Joseph's  own  record. 

(5)  The  early  persecutions  which  he  pictures  in  high  colors,  as 
following  him  from  1820,  onward,  have  very  little  historic  basis  for 
belief.  He  was  very  likely  ridiculed,  and  became  the  butt  of  satircal 
remarks  by  his  boy  companions — if  he  told  that  marvelous  story — 
for  that  would  be  quite  natural.  But  that  "multitudes"  conspired  to 
persecute  him,  that  "men  of  high  standing,"  "the  great  ones  of  the 
most  popular  sects,"  excited  the  country  community  against  him  and 
led  them  to  follow  him  with  harsh  persecutions,  is  incredible.  Be- 
sides, Joseph's  confession  that  he  fell,  through  mingling  with  all 
classes,  into  sins  that  were  heinous  in  the  sight  of  God,  is  a  contradio 
tion  of  his  charge. 

All  of  this  was  written  after  he  got  to  be  a  man  of  33  with  a  body 
of  devoted  people  around  him,  and  so  far  away  from  the  scenes  of  his 
boyhood,  that  there  was  little  possibility  of  denial  and  disproof. 

His  father  does  not  say  he  was  persecuted,  and  his  mother  refers 
to  it  in  a  paragraph  of  five  lines,  very  much  as  Joseph  had  given  it. 
Why  did  they  not  give  specifications  of  time,  place  and  persons,  if 
Joseph  was  persistently  hounded  by  enemies? 

(G)  The  proof  that  was  gathered  in  1834  of  the  general  reputation 
of  the  Smith  family  and  of  Joseph  in  particular,  that  he  was  lazy,  un- 
truthful, intemperate  and  given  to  exaggeration,  demonstrates  one  of 
two  things;  either  their  charges  were  true,  or  the  more  than  sixty 
witnesses  were  unconscionable  liars. 

In  this  case,  the  community  said  the  whole  family  were  undesir- 
able citizens,  and  Joseph,  Jr.,  the  worst  of  all.  If  it  were  left  so,  we 
might  hold  our  judgment  in  suspense,  but  Joseph  confesses  judgment. 
He  was  guilty  of  things  "offensive  in  the  sight  of  God,"  which  was 
all  the  community  alleged,  the  difference  being,  Joseph  plead  guilty 

10 


to  the  general  indictment,  while  the  community  entered  specifications. 

(7)  Moroni,  Joseph's  good  angel.  This  choice  was  neither  a  happy 
nor  a  logical  one.  Moroni  did  nothing  more  than  write  the  concluding 
books  of  the  Book  of  Mormon.  He  was  the  son  of  an  illustrious 
father  from  whom  he  received  certain  plates,  and  hid  them  up  with 
his  own,  in  Cumorah,  convenient  for  Joseph,  1,400  years  afterwards. 
When  he  took  his  departure  from  the  earth  where  all  his  kindred 
and  people  were  sleeping  unburied,  it  was  without  any  hint  he  should 
ever  return.  On  the  contrary,  he  declares  "he  is  soon  to  rest  in  the 
paradise  of  God  until  his  spirit  and  body  reunited,  he  is  to  be  brought 
forth  triumphant  through  the  air  to  meet  Jew,  Gentile  and  the  Seed 
of  Joseph,  at  the  pleasing  bar  of  God."  Moroni,  though  a  prophet, 
did  not  expect  to  appear  to  Joseph. 

The  Book  of  Mormon  relates  that  three  of  the  Nephite  disciples 
of  Jesus  were  left  to  mingle  with  men,  not  seeing  death  nor  transla- 
tion until  their  Lord  should  return;  they  were  to  do  "great  and  mar- 
velous works,"  before  that  day,  "yea,  even  among  the  Gentiles."  Here 
was  Joseph's  chance  to  be  taken  into  the  apostolic  office  by  living 
apostles;  he  might  also  have  enlisted  the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved, 
for  according  to  Joseph,  John  is  still  waiting  on  the  earth  for  the 
advent. 

These  could  have  revealed  the  hiding  place  of  the  plates,  and 
given  him  a  flesh  and  blood  ordination  as  the  apostle  of  "the  new  dis- 
pensation." Joseph  seemingly  forgot  them,  and  brought  in  Moses, 
and  Elijah,  and  Elias,  and  John  Baptist,  and  Peter,  James  and  John, 
to  give  him  his  "keys." 

Joseph  does  make  use  of  one  of  these  three  Nephites,  it  seems, 
but  it  was  only  to  walk  and  carry  one  hundred  and  ninety-four  pounds 
of  gold  plates  from  Harmony,  Penn.,  to  Fayette,  N.  Y.,  a  distance  of 
one  hundred  miles,  while  Joseph  rode  in  the  wagon  with  young  David 
Whitmer. 

Here  was  their  opportunity  to  introduce  a  lost  salvation  to  a  mis- 
guided and  lost  world.  Joseph  certainly  did  them  an  injustice  and 
failed  to  fulfill  the  prophecy  spoken  of  them,  by  neglecting  to  call 
them  in. 

(8)  Joseph's  mother,  in  her  interesting  history,  gives  us  a  side 
light  into  the  experiences  of  Joseph,  on  his  second  visit  to  Cumorah, 
and  confirms  a  piece  of  the  testimony  which  came  out  in  1834. 

Two  of  Joseph's  companions,  young  men,  gave  Joseph's  story  of 
his  find  in  the  box.  As  they  relate  the  story  Joseph  told  them,  he 
found  the  place  in  "a  dream";   Joseph  says  he  saw  it  "in  a  vision." 

11 


When  he  attempted  to  get  them,  "he  was  knocked  down."  On  look- 
ing up  he  saw  a  man,  a  Spaniard  in  appearance,  wearing  a  long  beard, 
his  throat  cut  from  ear  to  ear,  and  blood  streaming  down,  who  told 
him  he  could  not  get  them  alone.     That  was  Joseph's  tale  to  them. 

Now,  Joseph's  mother  tells  us  that,  on  attempting  to  get  the  con- 
tents of  the  stone  box  "he  was  hurled  violently  to  the  ground."  Joseph 
also  related,  according  to  his  mother's  account,  that  on  another  occa- 
sion the  angel  gave  him  at  Cumorah  the  severest  punishment  he  had 
ever  received  in  his  life.     Unconsciously,  he  confirms  the  two  boys. 

(9)  Joseph  is  too  modest.  He  had  a  reputation  far  and  wide  "as 
the  possessor  of  means  by  which  he  could  discern  things  invisible  to 
the  natural  eye."  These  are  his  mother's  words,  to  explain  why  Mr. 
Stoal  came  from  his  home  over  one  hundred  miles  away,  to  hire  him 

to  help  find  the  lost  silver  mine.  And  Isaac  Hale  says  that 
"he  looked  for  the  money  diggers  with  the  stone  in  his  hat 
and  his  hat  over  his  face."  "He  gave  them  great  encourage- 
ment at  first,  but  when  they  had  arrived  in  digging  near  to 
the  place  where  he  had  stated  an  immense  treasure  would  be 
found,  he  said  the  enchantment  was  so  strong  that  he  could 
not  see." 

That  Joseph  used  a  stone  which  they  call  a  "seer  stone,"  in  trans- 
lating the  plates,  is  conceded  by  the  highest  Mormon  authority,  as 
we  shall  show. 

Where  did  Joseph  get  that  stone?  How  came  he  to  know  it  pos- 
sessed magic  power?  He  does  not  say,  but  others  do.  It  was  the 
reputation  he  got  by  means  of  that,  long  before  he  thought  of  trans- 
lating the  book,  and  while  he  was  using  it  as  a  common  fortune- 
teller, that  brought  Mr.  Stoal  to  solicit  his  help. 

(10)  How  much  effort  was  really  made  by  "the  wicked  and  the 
ungodly"  about  him  to  get  possession  of  his  plates,  it  is  now  impossi- 
ble to  determine.  The  pretense  of  great  secrecy,  however,  on  the 
part  of  Joseph  and  his  family,  is  hardly  credible.  His  mother  says 
that  the  very  next  day  a  neighbor  came  and  made  inquiries  about  the 

plates,  but  that  "no  one  had  ever  heard  anything  from  us  re- 
specting them,  except  Joseph's  father,  two  or  three  years 
before,  had  spoken  to  a  confidential  friend  about  them."    And 

this  old  whispered  secret  is  pointed  to  as  the  vent  through  which  the 

report  of  the  discovery  escaped  them. 

The  evidence  is   very  strong  to  the  contrary.     The   members  of 

the  family  not  only  told   it  but  boasted  of  it;    and  the  news  spread 

12 


rapidly,  east  and  west,  and  was  the  subject  of  mucn  comment  by  the 
newspapers. 

Conspiracies  were  formed,  in  the  wake  of  these  rumors,  to  get 
possession  of  them,  so  Joseph  tells  us,  but  like  nearly  all  his  record, 
it  is  overdrawn,  and  the  pranks  of  young  men  were  exaggerated  into 
warlike  and  hostile  attacks  upon  him  by  "multitudes." 

Joseph  was  not  averse,  at  any  time,  to  publicity.  He  knew  per- 
fectly well  that  the  advertising  he  was  getting,  and  the  consequent 
notoriety,  would  be  his  chief  capital,  when  his  book  should  come 
forth.     It  was  his  winning  card. 

(11)  Plates  of  record.  This  was  not  an  original  conception,  alto- 
gether, yet  it  was  a  new  thing  under  the  sun  to  have  an  entire  Bible 
engraved  on  brass  plates. 

The  Egyptians  had  used  papyrus,  tablets  of  wax,  and  flat  and 
cylindrical  tablets  of  clay;  the  old  Babylonians  wrote  much  of  their 
history  on  clay — on  the  bricks  they  built  into  their  walls,  or  on  those 
kept  for  public  record;  the  Jews  used  papyri,  and  afterwards  the  skins 
of  animals,  for  their  sacred  books  and  for  their  chronicles;  but  ex- 
tensive records,  containing  all  the  Old  Testament  to  Jeremiah,  and 
the  genealogy  of  the  tribe  of  Joseph,  inscribed  on  brass  plates;  Ether's 
history  of  the  Jaredites  for  1,600  years  on  gold  plates;  and  the  book 
of  gold  plates,  which  Joseph  unearthed  from  Cumorah,  containing  the 
sacred  things  of  the  Nephites  for  a  thousand  years,  and  the  unsealed 
part  to  the  end  of  time,  was  a  new  thing  under  the  sun.  Solomon 
was  wrong.  He  had  not  fathomed  the  fertile  imagination  of  this  mod- 
ern man,  who  assembled  such  a  magnificent  array  of  metal  tablets, 
brass  and  gold,  as  the  whole  world  had  never  dreamed  of  before. 

The  Jews  had  some  plates  of  brass  and  gold;  brass  plates  on  the 
base  of  the  laver,  and  the  holy  crown  of  the  high  priest  was  a  plate 
of  gold  fastened  to  his  miter  and  banded  his  forehead.  On  it  was 
engraved,  like  the  engraving  of  a  signet,  "Holiness  to  the  Lord." 

The  Egyptians  and  Babylonians  had  gold,  but  they  made  their 
records  on  cheaper  materials.  Plates  of  bronze  were  used  in  decorat- 
ing, here  and  there,  palace  or  temple,  and  the  Hittite  version  of  the 
treaty  between  Pharaoh  and  the  king  of  the  Hittites  was  upon  a 
tablet  of  silver,  not  engraved,  but  incised,  or  cut  in,  so  as  to  leave  the 
characters  in  relief,  as  we  do  on  grave  stones;  but  no  such  method 
of  writing  history  as  Joseph  describes  has  been  discovered.  The 
statement  lies  within  the  limits  of  possibility,  but  its  improbability 
will  be  seen  at  a  glance.  If  the  Nephites  followed  the  custom  exclu- 
sively of  engraving  everything  in  Egyptian  hieroglyphics  on  plates  of 

13 


brass  or  gold,  they  chose  the  most  difficult,  the  most  laborious  and 
the  costliest  method  possible.  They  were  prolific  writers,  for  we 
have  many  plates  mentioned;  the  plates  of  Laban  containing  the  Old 
Testament  to  Jeremiah.  The  genealogy  of  the  tribe  of  Joseph;  the 
plates  of  Lehi;  two  complete  sets  of  plates  by  Nephi,  one  large,  the 
other  small;  plates  of  various  kings  and  prophets  from  Jacob  to  IV 
Nephi,  covering  a  period  of  1,000  years;  plates  of  Mormon  and  plates 
of  Moroni;  plates  of  Zeniff;  plates  of  Limhi;  plates  of  the  colonists 
who  went  northward;  plates  of  Jared;  and  of  writers  who  followed 
him  for  1,600  years;  plates  of  Ether;  and  lastly  the  abbreviated  plates 
of  Mormon  and  Moroni,  from  which  we  have  the  record  in  the  Book 
of  Mormon.  Moreover,  copies  were  made  of  the  Scriptures,  from  the 
plates  of  Lehi  and  Nephi,  and  widely  disseminated  among  the 
Nephites  and  some  of  the  Lamanites.  There  were,  therefore,  thousands 
of  them. 

Not  one  of  them,  however,  has  ever  come  to  light,  to  bear  its 
testimony  to  the  Book  of  Mormon,  whereas  there  ought  to  have  been 
frequent  discoveries  of  them  made,  if  that  book  be  true. 

CART   LOADS   OF    PLATES. 

In  Journal  of  Discourses,  Vol.  19,  P.  3G,  in  a  sermon  by  Brigham 
Young,  we  have  an  account  of  cart  loads  of  these  plates.  Here  is  his 
statement: 

"There  were  a  great  many  treasures  hid  up  by  the  'Ne- 
phites. *  *  *  I  lhed  right  in  the  country  where  the  plates 
were  found.  I  believe  I  will  take  the  liberty  to  tell  you  of  an- 
other circumstance  that  will  be  as  marvelous  as  anything  can 
be.  *  *  *  Joseph  did  not  translate  all  the  plates,  there  was  a 
portion  sealed.  *  *  *  When  Joseph  got  the  plates,  the  angel 
instructed  him  to  carry  them  back  to  Cumorah,  which  he  did. 
Oliver  (Cowdery)  says  that  when  he  and  Joseph  went  there, 
the  hill  opened,  and  they  walked  into  a  cave  in  which  there 
was  a  large  spacious  room.  *  *  *  They  laid  the  plates  on  a 
table;  it  was  a  large  table  that  stood  in  the  room.  Under 
this  table  there  was  a  large  pile  of  plates  as  much  as  two 
feet  high,  and  there  were  altogether  in  the  room  more  plates 
than  probably  many  wagon  loads;  they  were  piled  up  in 
corners  and  along  the  walls."  . 


14 


III. 

JOSEPH'S  SEERSTONE. 

The  first  stone  Joseph  used  was  the  property  of  Jack  Belcher,  of 
Gibson,  who  obtained  it  in  Salina,  N.  Y.,  while  hauling  salt.  He 
brought  it  home  because  he  thought  it  a  "seeing"  stone.  It  was  green 
with  irregular  brown  spots  on  it,  a  little  longer  than  a  goose  egg,  and 
about  as  thick.  It  was  very  likely  a  green  jade  stone  of  inferior  qual- 
ity. His  little  boy  was  the  first  to  look  into  it.  As  he  did  so,  he  first 
said  he  saw  a  candle,  and  the  next  time  he  cried  out,  "I  have  found 
my  hatchet,"  lost  two  years— and  imediately  went  to  the  place  shown 
and  got  it.  This  stone  got  quite  a  local  reputation  and  Joseph  Smith 
got  it  and  used  it  about  two  years  when  he  changed  to  the  stone  found 
in  digging  the  well  of  Willard  Chase.  This  last  was  the  stone  he 
used  when  in  the  employ  of  Mr.  Stoal  in  trying  to  locate  the  silver 
mine,  and  this  same  stone  he  used  in  translating  the  plates,  and  in 
making  his  revelations,  up  to  April,  1830.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
Joseph's  seer-stone  was  first  used  for  ordinary  fortune-telling  and 
treasurer-hunting,  and  afterwards  for  translating.  Afterwards  he  gave 
it  to  Oliver  Cowdery,  saying  he  had  no  more  use  for  it.  He  discarded 
the  instrument  of  the  "seer,"  for  "the  spirit  of  revelation  and 
prophecy." 

The  stone  is  said  to  be  in  the  possession  of  the  Mormon  church, 
in  Salt  Lake,  at  this  time. 

WHAT  NEED   HAD   HE  OF  THE  STONE? 

Without  the  aid  of  his  "interpreters,"  Joseph  afterward  "trans- 
lated and  corrected  the  Holy  Scriptures"  (our  English  Bible)  and 
translated  the  Egyptian  rolls,  the  Book  of  Abraham,  now  called  the 
Pearl  of  Great  Price,  the  fourth  "inspired"  book  of  the  Mormons,  "by 
the  spirit  of  revelation." 

How  he  explained  this  translation,  if  he  ever  did,  we  know  not, 
but  the  question  will  arise:  Did  he  need  the  stone,  in  translating 
Reformed  Egyptian,  when  he  was  able,  without  it,  to  translate  Egyp- 
tian?    Where  was  the  difference? 

Joseph  also  gave  a  partial  translation  by  the  spirit  of  revelation 
of  some  copper  plates,  discovered  (?)  at  Kinderhook,  Illinois,  declar- 
ing that  they  contained  the  history  of  the  person  with  whose  skeleton 
they  were  found,  that  he  was  a  descendant  of  Ham  through  the  loins 
of  Pharaoh,  king  of  Egypt,  etc.     See  Millennial  Star,  Vol.  21. 

15 


How  a  son  of  Pharaoh,  king  of  Egypt,  and  a  descendant  of  Ham, 
and  a  king  also,  got  into  America,  is  a  nut  Joseph  did  not  attempt 
to  crack.  Can  any  Mormon  solve  the  problem?  The  Kinderhook 
plates  were  only  a  hoax,  as  was  afterwards  fully  proven. 

IV. 

THE  WITNESSES  TO  THE  BOOK  OF 
MORMON. 

On  opening  the  Book  of  Mormon,  we  find  two  certificates,  follow- 
ing the  Preface,  one  signed  by  three  men,  the  other  by  eight. 

The  first  declares  "that  we,  through  the  grace  of  God  and 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  have  seen  the  plates  which  contain 
this  record;  .  .  .  and  we  also  know  that  they  have  been 
translated  by  the  gift  and  power  of  God,  for  His  voice  hath 
declared  it  unto  us;  and  we  also  testify  that  we  have  seen  the 
engravings  which  are  upon  the  plates;  and  they  have  been 
shown  to  us  by  the  power  of  God  and  not  of  man.  An  angel 
of  God  came  down  from  heaven  and  brought  and  laid  (them) 
before  our  eyes;  and  we  know  that  it  is  by  the  grace  of  God 
the  Father,  and  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  that  we  beheld  and 
bear  record  that  these  things  are  true;  and  it  is  marvelous  in 
our  eyes,  nevertheless  the  voice  of  the  Lord  commanded  us  . 
that  we  should  bear  record  of  it.  *  *" 

Mormons  quote  this  testimony  with  that  of  the  eight,  which  fol- 
lows, with  much  assurance;  and  well  they  may,  for  they  are  the  only 
testimony,  outside  of  Joseph's  own  word,  that  is  worthy  the  name  of 
evidence. 

But   notice: 

1.  They  give  neither  date  nor  place,  of  this  revelation.  That 
disqualifies  it  as  legal  evidence. 

2.  They  testify  to  what  was  not  then  an  accomplished  fact. 
David  Whitmer  says  this  occurred  the  last  of  June,  1829.  Oliver 
Cowdery  began  translating  April  7,  so  that  the  translation  had  been 
going  on  about  seventy-five  days,  subject  to  interruptions,  about  nine 
pages  per  day,  or  4,000  words,  if  every  week  day  had  been  so  em- 
ployed. 

A  fairly  rapid  penman  can  write  about  800  words  per  hour,  but 
it  is  impossible  to  continue  this  more  than  five  hours  per  day.  In 
translating,  Joseph  kept   his  face  submerged   in  his  hat,   read  off  the 

16 


sentences  as  they  appeared,  which  Oliver  copied  down;   then  he  read 
his  copy  to  Joseph  to  see  if  it  was  correct. 

This  was  slow,  laborious  and  painstaking,  and  could  be  accom- 
plished only  with  far  less  rapidity,  than  copying  from  manuscript, 
lying  under  one's  eyes.  Besides,  Martin  Harris  in  about  sixty  days 
wrote  only  116  pages  of  manuscript,  probably  150  pages  of  the  B.  M., 
but  not  the  same  matter.  It  is  therefore  extremely  improbable  that 
the  translation  was  finished  by  the  last  of  June.  Their  testimony 
therefore  was  not  true.     The  plates  were  not  all  translated. 

3.  The  witnesses  were  instructed  in  a  revelation  given  that  same 
month,  D.  and  C.  17:1,  5,  G,  that  they  should  have  a  view  of  the  plates, 
and  also   the   breastplate,  the   sword    of   Laban,   the   Urim   and   Thum- 

mim'-'and  the  magical  directors;   *  *  "And  ye  shall  testify  that 

you   have   seen    them,    even    as    my   servant   Joseph    has   seen 

them."  *  *  * 

Therefore  their  testimony  is  imperfect,  since  they  do  not  certify 
that  they  saw  the  other  articles  named  in  the  revelation. 

This  is  not  unimportant,  for  if  the  other  historic  objects  had  ap- 
peared with  the  plates,  it  would  have  strengthened  their  confidence 
as  to  the  reality  of  the  vision. 

4.  The  three  sign  the  same  certificate,  although  Martin  Harris 
was  not  with  the  other  two.  This  shows  Martin  a  very  complaisant 
witness,  and  suggests  that,  if  there  was  deception,  Martin  may  have 
played  the  part  of  the  angel. 

Note: — The  author  has  in  his  possession  a  manuscript  written  by 
a  man  who  was  once  a  devout  and  conscientious  Mormon.  He  emi- 
grated to  Utah,  leaving  his  wife  in  the  home  land,  because  she  refused 
to  become  a  Mormon. 

He  was  sent  on  a  mission  to  Australia,  where  he  married  a  Chris- 
tian woman  whom  he  had  proselyted  to  his  faith,  and  returned  with 
a  party  of  converts  to  Utah. 

He  spent  all  that  he  and  his  wife  had  in  helping  poor  saints  to 
make  the  journey,  and  they  landed  in  San  Francisco  witti  only  fifty 
cents. 

For  years  he  observed  very  conscientiously  the  requirements  of 
his  religion,  but  was  finally  convinced  that  the  whole  thing  was  false, 
by  seeing  the  dishonesty  of  his  neighbors  in  their  tithing,  the  easy 
and  indifferent  life  of  the  higher  officials  who  lived  off  the  tithing  of 
the  people,  and  especially  by  the  teaching  of  the  church  as  to  polyg- 
amy and  "proxy  husbands,"  which  were  zealously  taught  them  in  their 
secret  priesthood  meetings. 

17 


He  revolted  and  became  as  intense  in  his  opposition  as  he  had 
before  been  loyal  in  his  service. 

In  the  article  referred  to,  evidently  prepared  with  thought  and 
care,  he  maintains  that  Sidney  Rigdon  acted  the  part  of  the  angel  to 
these  witnesses,  and  that  he  got  his  idea  from  one  of  the  higher  de- 
grees of  masonry,  where  a  man  plays  the  part  of  an  angel. 

5.  By  taking  the  testimony,  using  D.  and  C.  17  as  our  guide  in 
the  study  of  this  certificate,  we  find  such  qualifications  and  evasive 
instructions,  as  to  destroy  all  its  value  as  testimony. 

"It  is  by  faith  you  shall  obtain  a  view  of  them,  even  that 

faith  which  was  had  by  the  prophets  of  old." 

Abraham  saw  the  day  of  Christ,  and  was  glad.  Isaiah  saw  the 
kingdom  of  Christ,  and  prophesied  its  glory.  • 

Ezekiel  saw  the  flood  of  gospel  waters  breaking  forth  from  the 
threshold  of  the  temple  and  flowing  eastward  with  ever  deepening 
and  accelerated  flood. 

But  none  of  these  prophets  saw  those  things  with  the  natural 
eyes,  but  with  the  eye  of  faith — a  spiritual  vision. 

These  witnesses  were  promised  a  vision  of  the  plates,  by  faith, 
"even  that  faith  which  these  prophets  of  old  had." 

Was  that  what  they  meant,  when  they  certified,  they  "have 
seen  the  plates"  containing  the  record?  If  they  had  respect  to  the 
revelation,  that  was  all. 

The   opening   words   of   the   revelation   imply   the   same. 

"Behold  you  must  rely  upon  my  word  which  if  you  shall  do, 

*   *  you   shall   have  a  view  of  them."  "My  word,"  came  from 

Joseph's  lips,  not  from  the  lips  of  Jesus  Christ. 

That  they  were  instructed  and  coached  beforehand,  can  not  be 
denied.  And  this  obscurity  and  qualification  of  statement,  makes  it 
doubtful  whether  they  meant  a  spiritual  vision,  or  a  physical  seeing. 

Even  if  they  used  the  term  "see"  in  its  natural  sense,  not  in  a 
figurative,  psychical  one, 

They   Were    Incompetent   Witnesses. 

Their  testimony  that  they  saw  plates  and  engraved  characters  on 
them,  may  be  accepted  as  true,  and  yet  they  could  not  tell  whether 
they  were  ancient  or  modern,  genuine  or  counterfeit.  There  was  room 
for  fraud,  whether  fraud  was  present  or  not.  Martin  Harris  was  not 
present  with  the  others,  but  he  was  somewhere  near. 

Another  explanation  is  plausible.  The  evidence  is  strong  that 
Joseph    continually    used   hypnotism.     His    was    a    strong,    masterful, 

18 


self-assertive  nature,  a  temperament  which  qualified  him  to  act  the 
part  of  such.  He  knew  nothing  of  hypnotism,  as  an  occult  science, 
but  he  was  proficient  in  it  as  an  art,  as  we  shall  see  further  along. 
Anyone  who  has  witnessed  the  delusions  which  hypnotists  impose 
upon  their  subjects,  can  easily  believe  that  all  that  the  witnesses 
certify  to,  as  occurring  that  day,  may  have  seemed  to  them  realities, 
but  were  mere  delusions. 

6.    Their  testimony  was  written  out  for  them  beforehand.    Joseph 
wrote  the  certificate,  as  surely  as  he  wrote  Section  17,  D.  and  C,  for 
therein  the  very  form  of  their  testimony  is  given  them.     "By 
your  faith  you  shall  have  a  view  of  them,"  and  you  shall  tes- 
tify it  was  by  the  power  of  God." 

"Wherefore  you  have  received  the  same  power,  the  same 
faith,  and  the  same  gift  like  unto  him,"  (Joseph) 
When,  therefore,  Joseph  wrote  out  what  and  how  he   had  "seen 
by  faith,"  they  signed  it. 

More:  Martin  Harris  was  forbidden  to  give  any  independent 
testimony.  "He  shall  say  no  more  unto  them  concerning 
these  things,  except  he  shall  say  I  have  seen  these  things 
and  they  have  been  shown  unto  me  by  the  power  of  God,  and 
these  are  the  words  he  shall  say.""  Yet  he  violated  that 
commandment,  and  certified  he  saw  the  angel  and  heard  the 
voice,  and  declares  ''These  things  are  true." 

We  have  an  independent  testimony  of  David  Whitmer,  as  given 
by  a  reporter  of  the  Kansas  City  Journal,  a  part  of  which  we  insert 
here. 

"When  did  you  see  the  plates?" 

"It  was  in  the  latter  part  of  June,  1S29,  Joseph.  Oliver 
Cowdery  and  myself  were  together  and  the  angel  showed 
them  to  us.  We  not  only  saw  the  plates  of  the  Book  of  Mor- 
mon, but  he  also  showed  us  the  brass  plates  (?)  of  the  book 
of  Ether,  and  many  others. 

They  were  shown  to  us  in  this  way.  Joseph,  Oliver  and 
I  were  sitting  on  a  log,  when  we  were  overshadowed  by  a 
light  more  glorious  than  the  sun.  In  the  midst  of  this  light, 
but  a  few  feet  from  us,  appeared  a  table,  upon  which  were 
many  gold  plates,  also  the  sword  of  Laban  and  the  directors. 
I  saw  them  as  plain  as  I  see  you  now,  and  distinctly  heard 
the  voice  of  the  Lord  proclaiming  that  the  records  of  the 
plates  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  were  translated  by  the  gift 
and  power  of  God." 

19 


,lWho  also  saw  the  plates  at  this  time?" 

"No  one.     Martin  Harris,  the  other  witness,  saw  them  the 

same  day,  and  the  eight  witnesses  saw  them  the  next  day." 
"Smith  made  fac-similes  of  some  of  the  plates  and  sent 

them  by  Martin  Harris  to  Professors  Anthon  and  Mitchell  of 

New  York.     They  pronounced  the  characters  Reformed  Egyp- 
tian, but  were  unable  to  read  them." 

One  can  not  but  regret  that  Joseph  did  not  let  these  men  write 
out  their  independent  testimonies,  instead  of  confining  them  to  his 
program.  It  certainly  would  have  been  far  more  interesting  and 
might  have  been  more  instructive,  as  the  above  proves. 

That  there  are  some  errors  in  the  above  testimony,  is  clear.  The 
plates  of  Ether  were  gold,  not  brass. 

Prof.  Anthon  did  not  pronounce  the  characters  Reformed  Egyp- 
tian, in  his  testimony,  and  Joseph  Smith  says  that  Martin  reported  to 
him  that  he  said  they  were  true  "Egyptian,  Chaldaic,  Assyriac  and 
Arabic."  These  characters  pretended  to  be  of  COO  B.  C;  Reformed 
Egyptian  belongs  to  400  A.  D. 

Whitmer  says  the  two  professors  could  not  read  them,  but  Martin 
reported  that  Prof.  Anthon  pronounced  the  translation  correct.  Here 
are  direct  contradictions,  and  impossible  statements. 

Had  the  reporter  understood  the  points  in  controversy,  at  that 
time,  respecting  the  coming  forth  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,  and  had  got 
Mr.  Whitmer's  answers  to  questions  covering  them,  we  would  have 
testimony  of  great  value,  now  forever  sealed  to  us. 

Or,  if  a  skillful  modern  reporter  had  got  on  Joseph's  track  during 
the  first  few  years  of  his  career  as  a  prophet,  he  would  have  shown 
up  the  whole  matter  in  a  convincing  light.  Joseph's  pretensions 
seemed  to  the  world  so  preposterous,  and  himself  so  insignificant, 
that  they  excited  nothing  more  serious  than  ridicule  or  contempt,  and 
he  was  practically  let  alone.     Being  let  alone,  the  error  grew. 

Testimony  of  Eight. 

Immediately  following  this  testimony  of  three,  is  another  signed 
by  eight  men.     It  follows: 

"Joseph  Smith,  Jr.,  the  translator  of  this  work,  has  shown 
us  the  plates  which  have  the  appearance  of  gold;  and  as 
many  of  the  leaves  as  he  has  translated  we  handled  with  our 
haHds;  also  we  saw  the  engravings  thereof,  all  of  which  has 
the  appearance  of  ancient  work  of  curious  workmanship. 

"This  we  bear  record  with  words  of  soberness,  that  the 

20 


said  Smith  has  shown  us,  for  we  have  seen  and  hefted,  and 

know   of  a  surety   that  he  has  got   the   plates   of   which   we 

have   spoken." 

For  the  first  time,  and  the  last,  Joseph  got  his  head  out  of  the 
clouds  of  mysticism  and  his  feet  on  the  ground,  and  gave  us  a  purely 
human  testimony.  Nothing  supernatural,  nothing  miraculous,  no 
magic  nor  hypnotism,  about  that.  Let  us  play  him  fair,  and  accept 
this  testimonial  for  all  it  is  worth.  He  did  not  require  these  men 
to  have  faith  like  unto  the  faith  of  the  prophets  of  old,  nor 
were  the  plates  so  sacied  that  they  must  be  shown  by  an  angel  who 
came  down  from  heaven  for  that  purpose;  nor  was  there  a  voice  de- 
claring the  translation  true.  Common,  ordinary  men  saw  and  hefted 
the  plates  which  looked  like  gold,  in  the  sensible  way  men  usually 
follow  in  examining  things  of  the  earth.  The  sum  of  their  testimony 
is  that  they  were  permitted  to  handle  the  translated  leaves,  they  saw 
the  engravings,  and  they  hefted  the  book  of  plates;  therefore  they 
say,  we  know  "he  has  got  the  plates  of  which  we  have  spoken."  But, 
two  questions  arise  here,  which  need  to  be  answered: 

(1)  Why  so  much  miracle  and  magic,  in  the  first  view  of  them, 
since  ordinary  men  saw  them  in  so  natural  a  way,  the  very  next  day? 

(2)  If  men  who  knew  nothing  of  antiquity,  who  were  able  to 
read  only  English,  and  therefore  could  not  know  the  nature  of  the 
engravings,  were  permitted  to  handle  and  test  the  weight  of  the  metal 
book,  why  did  not  Joseph  submit  the  same  to  men  who  could  have 
told  at  once  whether  they  were  gold  or  mere  glitter,  and  whether  the 
engravings  were  genuine  character  writing,  or  mere  senseless  marks? 

To  put  the  two  questions  into  one,  why  did  not  Joseph  submit 
his  plates  to  competent  witnesses,  instead  of  to  men  who,  from  their 
lack  of  knowledge,  were  incompetent  to  testify  in  the  matter,  save 
that  they  saw  and  hefted  them?  One  leaf  of  the  plates,  if  submitted 
to  the  proper  witnesses,  with  the  translation,  would  have  been  suffi- 
cient, either  to  confirm  his  claims,  or  to  shatter  his  dream. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  prove  fraud,  but  simply  to  show  that  Joseph 
pursued  a  course  that  protected  him  from  exposure,  if  he  was  prac- 
ticing deception. 

If,  in  answer,  our  Mormon  friends  refer  us  to  the  fact  that  Martin 
Harris  did  place  some  of  the  characters  before  a  learned  man,  that 
he  pronounced  them  true  characters,  the  reader  is  referred  to  the 
letters  of  Prof.  Anthon,  which  are  found  in  all  current  Mormon  litera 
tare,  the  summary  of  which  is  as  follows: 

Harris'    Account:      Harris    submitted    two    sets    of    characters    to 

21 


Prof.  Anthon,  one  of  them  translated,  the  other  untranslated.  Of  the 
first  Prof.  Anthon  declared  the  translation  correct,  "more  so  than  any 
he  had  seen  translated  from  the  Egyptian."  Of  the  second  set,  Prof. 
Anthon  said  they  were  "Egyptian,  Chaldaic,  Assyriac  and  Arabic,  and 
were  true  characters." 

He  gave  Martin  a  certificate,  certifying  to  the  above.  As  he  was 
Ic3ving,  Prof.  Anthon  called  him  back  and  asked  how  the  young 
man  found  out  that  there  were  gold  plates  in  the  box.  Upon  receiv- 
ing the  answer  that  an  angel  of  God  revealed  it,  the  professor  said, 
"Let  me  see  the  certificate."  Harris  gave  it  to  him,  when  Prof. 
Anthon  tore  it  up,  saying  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  ministering 
of  angels,  but  if  Harris  would  bring  him  the  plates,  he  would  trans- 
late them.  Then  Harris  told  him  the  plates  were  sealed  and  he  was 
forbidden  to  bring  them,  and  Anthon  answered  him:  "I  cannot  read 
a  sealed  book."  Harris  also  states  that  he  then  went  to  Prof.  Mit- 
chell, who  sanctioned  what  Prof.  Anthon  had  said  as  to  both  the 
characters  and  the  translation.  See  History  of  Mormon  Church,  S.  L., 
P.  20. 

Prof.  Anthon's  Account:     Letter  to  Mr.  Howe,  in  1834. 

"The  whole  story  about  my  pronouncing  the  Mormon  in- 
scription to  be  reformed  Egyptian  hieroglyphics  is  perfectly 
false.  Some  years  ago,  a  plain  farmer  called  on  me  with  a 
note  from  Dr.  Mitchell  of  this  city,  requesting  me  to  decipher, 
if  possible,  the  paper  which  the  farmer  would  hand  me.  Upon 
examining  it,  I  soon  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  all  a 
trick — perhaps  a  hoax  When  I  asked  him  how  he  obtained 
it  he  gave  the  following  account:  A  gold  book  with  an  enor- 
mous pair  of  spectacles  had  been  dug  up  in  northern  New 
York.  The  spectacles  were  so  large  that  a  person  could  use 
one  of  them  only,  but  whoever  examined  the  plates  through 
the  glasses,  was  enabled  to  read  them  and  understand  them. 
Placed  behind  a  curtain  in  a  garret,  and  thus  concealed  from 
view,  the  young  man  to  whom  this  knowledge  was  confined, 
looked  through  these  glasses  occasionally,  and  having  de- 
ciphered the  characters  and  committed  some  of  them  to 
paper,  handed  copies  to  those  who  stood  outside.  Not  a  word 
was  said  about  their  being  deciphered  by  the  gift  of  God,  but 
everything  was  done  by  the  glasses. 

"The  farmer  added  that  he  had  been  requested  to  contrib- 
ute a   certain   sum   of   money  toward   the   publication   of  the 


book,  the  contents  of  which  would,  he  was  told,  produce  an 
entire  change  in  the  world  and  save  it  from  ruin;  that  he 
intended  to  sell  his  farm  and  give  the  amount  needed  to  pub- 
lish the  plates.  As  a  last  precaution,  he  had  resolved  to 
come  to  New  York  and  get  an  opinion  of  the  learned,  as  to 
the  characters,  although  no  translation  had  at  that  time  been 
made  by  the  young  man.  On  hearing  this  I  changed  my  mind, 
and  viewed  the  matter  no  longer  as  a  hoax,  but  part  of  a 
scheme  to  cheat  the  farmer  of  his  money.  I  told  him  my 
suspicions,  and  advised  him  to  beware  of  rogues. 

"He  requested  an  opinion  of  me  in  writing  which,  of 
course  I  declined  to  give.  He  left,  taking  his  paper  with  him. 
*  "The  paper  was  a  singular  scroll;  singular  characters  dis- 
posed in  columns,  evidently  prepared  by  some  one  who  had 
before  him  at  the  time  a  book  containing  various  alphabets, 
Greek  and  Hebrew  letters,  crosses  and  flourishes;  Roman 
letters  inverted  or  placed  sideways  and  the  whole  ended  with 
a  rude  circle  divided  into  compartments  arched  with  various 
strange  marks,  evidently  copied  after  the  Mexican  calendar 
by  Humboldt,  but  evidently  disguised  as  to  its  source. 

"The  paper  contained  anything  else  but  Egyptian  hiero- 
glyphics. Some  time  afterwards  the  farmer  came  again  with 
the  printed  book,  offering  it  for  sale.  I  referred  again  to  the 
roguery  I  had  suspected  and  asked  him  what  had  become  of 
the  gold  plates.  He  said  they  were  in  a  trunk  with  the  spec- 
tacles. I  advised  him  to  go  to  a  magistrate  and  have  the 
trunk  examined.  He  said  the  curse  of  God  would  rest  upon 
him,  if  he  did.  On  pressing  him  to  take  this  course,  he  told 
me  he  would  open  the  trunk  if  I  would  take  this  curse  upon 
myself.  I  told  him  I  would  willingly  do  so  and  would  incur 
any  risk  of  that  nature,  if  I  could  extricate  him  from  the 
grasp  of  the  rogues      He  then  left  me." 

In  1841,  Prof.  Anthon  wrote  Rev.  T.  W.  Coit,  in  answer  to  some 
inquiry  of  his,  in  which  are  two  seeming  contradictions  to  his  first 
letter.  These  we  quote,  because  they  are  emphasized  by  Eld.  Roberts 
in  his  New  Witness  for  God,  and  made  the  basis  for  impeaching  the 
truth  of  Prof.  Anthon's  statements.     They  follow: 

"I  have  often  heard  that  the  Mormons  claimed  me  for  an 
auxiliary,  but  as  no  one  until  the  present  time  has  even  re- 
quested from  me  a  statement  in  writing,  I  have  not  deemed 
it  worth  while  to  say  anything  publicly  on  the  subject.     What 

23 


I  do  know  of  the  sect  relates  to  some  of  the  early  move- 
ments; and  as  the  facts  may  amuse  you,  while  they  will  fur- 
nish a  satisfactory  answer  to  the  charge  of  my  being  a  Mor- 
mon proselyte,  I  proceed  to  lay  them  before  you  in  detail." 

"On  my  telling  the  bearer  of  the  paper  that  an  attempt 
had  been  made  to  impose  on  him  and  defraud  him  of  his 
property,  he  requested  me  to  give  him  my  opinion  in  writing 
about  the  paper  he  had  showed  me.  I  did  so  without  hesita- 
tion, partly  for  the  man's  sake,  and  partly  to  let  the  indi- 
vidual behind  the  curtain,  see  that  his  trick  was  discovered. 
The  import  of  what  I  wrote  was,  as  far  as  I  can  now  recol- 
lect, that  the  marks  were  merely  the  imitation  of  various  al- 
phabetical characters,  with  no  meaning  at  all  connected  wit'h 
them." 

First,  as  to  the  seeming  contradiction  between  the  well-known 
fact  that  Prof.  Anthon  wrote  to  Mr.  Howe  in  1S34,  which  letter  was 
published  in  full  in  Howe's  Mormonism  Unveiled,  and  the  above 
statement  that  "no  one  until  the  present  time  has  even  requested 
from  me  a  statement." 

If  we  had  the  inquiry  which  Rev.  Mr.  Coit  wrote  Prof.  Anthon, 
we  would,  no  doubt,  have  a  complete  explanation.  Inasmuch  as  we 
do  not  have  that,  we  can  only  judge  of  Coit's  letter,  by  the  answer 
Prof.  Anthon  gave,  and  that  explanation  we  have  in  the  first  para- 
graph quoted. 

The  rumor  was  prevalent,  evidently,  that  Prof.  Anthon  was  a 
proselyte  to  Mormonism  and  working  with  them  to  extend  the  faith. 
Notice  his  words: 

"I  have  often  heard  that  the  Mormons  claimed  me  for  an 
auxiliary" — that  is   a   confederate,   or   ally. 

"The  facts  will  furnish  a  satisfactory  answer  to  the 
charge  of  my  being  a  Mormon  proselyte." 

It  is  clear  that  Mr.  Coit  did  not  ask  him  about  the  truth  of  Martin 
Harris'  report,  as  to  the  interview  described  in  Prof.  Anthon's  first 
letter,  but  as  to  the  truth  of  the  claim  the  Mormons  were  making 
that  he,  Prof.  Anthon,  had  become  a  proselyte  to  their  faith. 

Prof.  Anthon's  last  leter  says,  in  effect,  I  knew  that  they  were 
publishing  this,  but  inasmuch  as  up  to  this  time  no  one  has  written 
me  about  that,  I  have  not  thought  it  worth  while  to  make  a  public 
statement. 

That  it  is  false,  the  facts  I  now  give  you,  will  prove.  Then,  to 
clinch  the  denial,  he  gives  the  facts  as  to  Martin  Harris'  call  upon 

24 


him  and  adds:  "Of  their  doctrines  I  know  nothing  whatever,  nor 
have  I  ever  heard  a  single  discourse  from  any  of  their  preachers." 

Mr.  Howe  wrote  Prof.  Anthon  about  Martin  Harris'  visit;  the 
first  letter  of  Prof.  Anthon's  answered  that.  Rev.  Mr.  Coit  wrote 
asking  him  about  his  becoming  a  Mormon;  Prof.  Anthon's  second 
letter  answered  that. 

There  is  no  contradiction  whatever. 

As  to  the  second  apparent  contradiction,  wherein  Prof.  Anthon 
says,  in  the  first  letter,  he  declined  to  give  Harris  an  opinion  in  writ- 
ing, and  in  the  second  that  he  did  so  without  hesitation,  we  have  no 
perfectly  satisfactory  answer.  Prof.  Anthon  in  writing  the  second 
time  may  have  forgotten  that  he  did  not  give  it,  or  in  the  first  that 
he  did  give  it,  a  mere  lapse  of  memory.  Or  Harris  may  have  asked 
for  a  certificate  twice,  once  that  the  characters  were  true,  which 
Anthon  would  not  give,  and  a  second  time  in  the  course  of  their  con- 
versation, he  asked  Mr.  Anthon's  real  judgment  as  to  the  character 
of  the  paper,  which  the  Professor  willingly  gave.  An  interval  of  five 
or  six  years  lies  between  Harris'  visitft  and  Prof.  Anthon's  first  letter, 
and  of  seven  years  between  Prof.  Anthon's  two  letters. 

Let  us  examine  Martin  Harris'  testimony  as  Joseph  Smith  re- 
ported it.  • 

1.  He  says  Prof.  Anthon  told  him  the  translation  was  correct," 
more  so  than  any  he  had  before  seen  from  the  Egyptian." 

Prof.  Anthon  says  no  translation  was  given  him,  as  no  decipher- 
ment had  as  yet  been  made. 

Martin  is  too  willing  a  witness,  he  goes  too  far  This  is  acknowl- 
edged by  Eld.  Roberts,  who,  after  quoting  Harris'  statement  given 
above,  says:  "The  writer  is  of  the  opinion  that  there  is  in  this  state- 
ment too  wide  a  scope  given  to  what  Prof.  Anthon  said  of  the  transla- 
tion." That  is  a  mild  way  of  putting  it.  In  fact,  Harris'  statement 
could  not  be  true. 

Eld.  Roberts  gives  "too  wide  a  scope"  as  to  what  Prof.  Anthon 
said  in  his  letters,  concerning  the  characters.  Mr.  Roberts:  "It  will 
be  seen  by  his  leters,  that  he  (Prof.  A.)  acknowledges  that  the  char- 
acters submitted  to  him  were  true  characters."  "Too  wide  a  scope," 
is  too  gentle  a  characterization  of  that  statement.  Prof.  Anthon  says 
distinctly  that  "the  paper  contained  anything  else  but  Egyptian 
hieroglyphics";  "Greek,  Hebrew  and  all  sorts  of  letters,  more  or  less 
distorted,  "intermingled  with  sundry  delineations  of  half  moons,  stars 
and  other  natural  objects,  ending  with  a  rude  delineation  of  the  Mex- 

25 


ican  calendar."     Read  again  what  Mr.  Roberts  says  and  see  if  he  did 
not  misrepresent  Prof.  Anthon,with  the  two   letters  before  him. 

2.  Harris  reports  Prof.  Anthon  as  saying  that  the  characters  in 
the  second  paper  were  "Egyptian,  Chaldean,  Assyriac  and  Arabic." 

Of  course  Prof.  Anthon  said  no  such  thing.  Look  at  the  "carac- 
tors"  given  on  page  following  and  you  can  find  almost  anything  in 
them,  except  "Egyptian."  Two  or  three  resemble  Hebrew  letters, 
some  have  a  resemblance  to  Arabic;  but,  inasmuch  as  the  Arabic  let- 
ters were  not  in  use  until  after  the  plates  were  buried,  the  resem- 
blances were  merely  accidental,  or  were  copied  from  a  modern  book. 

3.  Harris  said  he  went  from  Mr.  Anthon  to  Mr.  Mitchell,  who 
confirmed  what  the  former  said.  Prof.  Anthon  says  that  Harris  came 
from  Mitchell  to  him,  with  a  note  from  him  requesting  him  (Prof.  A.) 
to  decipher,  if  possible,  the  characters. 

There  is  no  question  as  to  which  is  right,  as  to  this  fact.  Did 
Harris  suffer  a  lapse  of  memory,  or  was  he  determined  to  get  two 
certificates  that  the  characters  were  true,  out  of  one  statement  that 
they  were  meaningless? 

Other  Proof  Should  Have  Been  Demanded. 

That  the  eleven  witnesses  were  incompetent  and  too  credulous  is 
clearly  shown  in  this: 

Joseph  Smith  reported  that  he  found  the  plates  in  a  stone  box 
on  a  certain  hill.     He  described  the  location  with  exactness. 

That  box  was  a  very  substantial  thing  and  might  have  been  mado 
to  bear  strong  corroborative  testimony  to  the  truth  of  his  statement, 
or  to  have  disproved  it. 

The  box  was  there,  if  ever,  intact,  when  the  witnesses  signed  the 
certificates.  They  do  not  seem  to  have  thought  it  worth  while  :o 
verify  Joseph's  statement,  by  examining  the  hill — a  very  easy  matter. 

Instead,  they  accepted  Joseph's  unsupported  word,  when  as  pru- 
dent, careful,  self-poised  men,  they  should  have  demanded  an  exam- 
ination. 

Joseph  himself  should  have  suggested  this  test  and  said  to  them, 
"Come  and  see  where  these  ancient  plates  were  laid." 

Mormons  lived  in  the  contiguous  country  for  years,  yet  none  of 
them  ever  hunted  for  that  stone  box. 

On  the  contrary,  they  seem  to  have  looked  upon  the  hill  as 
"Taboo" — too  sacred  to  investigate. 

Eld.  Edward  Stevenson,  in  his  "Reminiscences  of  Joseph  the 
Prophet,"   tells   us    that   this    hill,   the    Ramah   of   the   Jaredites   and 

2G 


Cumorah  of  the  Nephites,  was  the  treasure  hill  of  the  two  nations; 
that  soon  after  Smith  found  the  gold  Bible  a  Rochester  company 
searched  it  for  hid  treasure,  but  "the  only  results  of  their  efforts  were 
the  holes  they  left  on  the  hillside;"  then  he  adds,  significantly: 
"When  they  (the  untranslated  plates)  are  translated  much  useful  in- 
formation will  be  brought  to  light.  But  till  that  day  arrives,  no 
Rochester  adventurers  shall  ever  see  them  or  the  treasures,  although 
science  and  mineral  rods  testify  they  are  there.  At  the  proper  time, 
when  greed,  selfishness  and  corruption  shall  cease  to  reign  In  the 
hearts  of  the  people,  these  vast  hoards  of  hidden  treasure  shall  be 
brought  forth  to  be  used  for  the  cause  and  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ." 
By  this  he  informs  us  that  these  treasures  are  there,  but  held 
under  some  enchantment  which  protects  them  from  the  unbelieving, 
but  will  yield  them  up  to  some  one  of  the  Latter  Day  Saints,  in  the 
fulness  of  time.  How  generally  this  superstition  is  held  by  Mormons 
it  is  impossible  to  the  writer  to  say;  but  it  does  not  commend  itself 
to  hard,  common-sense  people.  It  sounds  too  much  like  the  juggler's 
formula:     "Presto!     Change!     Now  you  see  it;   and  now  you  DON'T! 

v. 

WHY   THE   PLATES   WERE   NOT   SUBJECT 
TO  SCIENTIFIC  TEST. 

.  Mormons  themselves,  at  least  those  who  intelligently  follow  the 
history  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  and  are  independent  enough  to  ask 
questions,  realize  keenly  that  the  story  of  the  plates  is  open  to  just 
criticism,  particularly  because  they  were  screened  from  impartial  in- 
vestigation, on  the  claim  that  they  were  too  "sacred"  for  profane 
hands  to  touch,  or  the  eyes  of  the  skeptical  to  look  upon;  that  the 
reverence  and  obedience  demanded  for  them,  therefore,  rests  upon 
credulity  and  superstition,  and  not  upon  scientific  proof. 

The  refusal  or  neglect  to  submit  them  to  competent  and  disin- 
terested men,  is  a  fatal  defect  in  the  chain  of  proof,  and  subjects  the 
author  to  the  suspicion  of  fraud,  and  Mormon  writers  have  been 
profuse  in  offering  reasons  to  justify  Josepn  in  his  secreting  them. 

As  far  as  the  writer's  investigation  has  discovered  them,  the  rea- 
sons given  are: 

1.     It  would  not  validate  Joseph's  claim  to  show  them  to 

men.    Not  one  in  a  thousand  could  read  them,  very  few  of  the 

earth  could  see  them,  and,  therefore,  in  the  last  analysis,  the 

27 


people   would   have   to   rest   their   faith  on    the  testimony    of 
others. 

2.  Many  thousands  of  Saints  are  staking  their  eternal 
salvation  on  the  principles  revealed  in  the  records,  are  sat- 
isfied and  happy  in  their  faith  in  Joseph  Smith,  and  these 
people  are  the  intellectual  and  moral  peers  of  those  who  do 
not   agree   with    them 

3.  The  church  which  Joseph  Smith  founded  finds  she 
does  not  need  this  independent  proof  for  success;  that  she  is 
not  able  to  bear  off  her  portion  of  labor  called  for  to  meet 
all  the  demands  that  come  to  her  for  help. 

4.  Many    recent    scientific    discoveries    relative    to    the 
people  whose  history  the  Book  of  Mormon  gives,   confirm,  unequivo- 
cally, the  credibility  of  the  book. 

5.  A  half  million  of  devout  men  and  women  have  risen  up  during 
the  past  few  years,  to  declare,  in  the  fear  of  God,  that  they  know,  by 
the  testimony  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  that  Joseph  Smith  was  a  messenger 
from  God,  and,  therefore,  the  plates  must  have  been  what  he  testified 
they  were. 

G.  There  is  no  reason  why  the  Mormon  plates  should 
be  singled  out  as  an  exception.  The  Bible  goes  back  only  to 
copies  of  the  originals,  and  Christians  are  satisfied  with  that. 
If  we  had  the  orginals  of  the  Bible,  or  of  the  Book  of 
Mormon,  the  exhibition  of  them  would  only  pander  to  a 
morbid  curiosity,  and  give  some  an  opportunity  to  display 
their  learning.  They  could  serve  no  good  and  wholesome 
purpose. 

7.  The  plates  were  sacred,  and  to  exhibit  them  to  the 
world  would  be  as  great  a  crime,  as  to  make  a  public  exhibi- 
tion of  the  Dove,  the  emblem  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

VI. 

REVIEW  OF  ABOVE  REASONS. 

The  foregoing  reasons  appear  in  an  article  in  the  Semi-Weekly 
News,  March  8,  1906,  in  a  lengthy  article,  which  brings  together  all 
the  conceivable  arguments  for  withholding  the  plates  from  impartial 
examination.  The  author,  Mr.  Thomas  W.  Brookbank,  has  given  us, 
in  his  carefully  prepared  paper,  the  strongest  presentation  that  can 
be   made. 

Doubtless  he   satisfied  those  whose   faith   in  Joseph   Smith   over- 

28 


balances  their  judgment,  for  we  are  all  easily  persuaded  to  believe 
what  we  want  to  believe;  but  the  honest  seeker,  who  is  after  the 
truth  only,  will  answer  him  readily,  with  more  weighty  reasons.  Let 
us  first  carefully  examine  the  conditions  that  confront  us. 

Joseph  Smith,  professing  to  be  a  prophet,  declares  he  is  in  pos- 
session of  ancient  records,  some  of  them  over  2,000  years  old,  and 
that  their  contents  overturn  all  the  existing  forms  of  Christianity, 
and  introduce  a  new  dispensation  of  grace.  Because,  therefore,  their 
coming  forth  is  fraught  with  such  momentous  and  universal  import- 
ance, involving  nothing  less  than  a  world-wide  revolution,  his  testi- 
monials should  be  unimpeachable;  they  should  satisfy  every  honest 
mind  and  confound  the  most  skeptical. 

What  is  his  astonishment,  therefore,  to  find  that  while  he  pro- 
fessed to  have  these  ancient  tablets  in  his  possession  from  Sept.  23, 
1827,  to  July,  1830,  he  kept  them  secreted  and  urged  in  justification, 
that  they  were  so  "sacred"  that  God  Himself  had  commanded  him  to 
show  them  to  no  one  except  He  ordered  it,  and  that  they  were  seen 
only  twice,  and  only  to  select  companies  of  his  own  friends.  The 
claim  itself  raises  the  presumption  of  fraud. 

Any  honest  man,  coming  into  possession  of  plates  of  whose 
antiquity  he  was  absolutely  sure,  would  not  only  not  fear  the  most 
searching  and  critical  investigation,  but  he  would  invite  it;  nay  de- 
mand  it. 

We  might  leave  the  whole  answer  in  this  general  proposition; 
but  to  satisfy  the  Saints  themselves,  we  take  up  the  reasons  for  re- 
fusing to  exhibit  their  records,  seriatim. 

1.  "It  would  not  validate  Joseph's  testimony." 

That  is  exactly  what  it  would  have  done,  if  Joseph's  testimony 
had  been  true.  But  the  dilemma  is,  it  would  have  proved  him  an  im- 
poster,  if  his  testimony  was  false. 

2.  The  answer  to  the  second  reason  is  easy  and  cogent.  There 
are  other  people  in  the  world  staking  their  salvation  upon  the  prin- 
ciples contained  in  their  holy  books;  not  merely  thousands  of  them, 
but  millions. 

Mohammedans  trust  in  their  Koran;  have  unquestioning  faith  in 
its  precepts;  prove  its  authenticity,  tracing  it  historically  to  Moham- 
med, their  prophet. 

Another  answer  is  ready.  Mormonism  is  a  corrupted  form  of 
Christianity.  The  Articles  of  Faith  it  publishes  to  the  world,  agree, 
verbally,    with    the    general    faith    of    Christians.      Who    probes    deep 

29 


enough  will  find  the  covert  errors  that  hide  beneath  the  fair  exterior. 
But  the  ordinary  mind  will  not. 

There  are  thousands  of  Mormons  who  are  far  more  Christian 
than  Mormon;  whose  faith  rests  just  where  the  faith  of  Christians  is 
fixed,  in  Christ.  Their  hope  of  salvation  is  not  in  Joseph  Smith,  but 
in  Jesus,  and  they  are  trusting  Him  and  Him  alone,  as  their  Savior. 

Every  one  who  has  labored  as  a  Christian  missionary  in  Utah 
has  discovered  this  fact,  and  found  many  to  whom  Mormonism  is  only 
a  name,  but  Christ  Jesus  is  their  hope  and  joy. 

3.  The  writer  disputes  this  reason  in  toto.  If  there  ever  was  an 
unpopular  religion,  it  is  Mormonism.  Its  missionaries  go  out  to 
preach  it  by  compulsion.  By  that  he  would  not  be  understood  as 
charging  the  church  with  using  force,  or  commanding  them  to  go; 
but  it  is  undeniable  that  very,  very  few  of  their  missionaries  go  con- 
strained by  the  love  of  Christ,  or  by  their  faith  in  Joseph  Smith,  but 
because  such  conditions  exist  in  Utah  that  custom  and  the  good  will 
of  the  authorities  and  one's  standing  in  the  community  where  they 
expect  to  spend  their  lives  require  them  to  give  the  cusomary  time 
to  this  work. 

When  they  go,  it  is  to  communities  that  have  not  called  for  them 
and  do  not  want  them,  and  they  make  thousands  of  calls  at  homes 
where  they  are  kindly  told  the  people  do  not  wish  to  have  any  con- 
versation with  them  about  their  religion. 

4.  As  to  the  alleged  fact  that  many  scientific  discoveries  relative 
to  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  America  have  confirmed  the  Book  of 
Mormon,  it  is  pure  "buncombe." 

The  Mormon  church  is  challenged  to  make  a  presentation  of  these 
proofs  and  submit  it  to  the  scientific  world.  Many  scientists  would 
just  as  soon  Mormonism  were  true  as  Christianity,  and  would  be  just 
as  impartial  to  one  as  to  another. 

Let  Mormon  scientific  men  gather  all  these  discoveries  and  pre- 
sent them  in  positive  statements,  with  the  proof  they  have,  and  if  it 
stands  the  cold,  merciless,  analytic  examination  scientists  make  of  it, 
merely  to  determine  the  cogency  of  their  arguments,  and  these  men 
who  seek  merely  for  truth,  approve  the  presentation,  Mormons  may 
then  reiterate  their  claim  with  some  show  of  probability. 

5.  The  spiritual  proof  of  the  truth  of  the  B.  M.,  the  inner,  un 
written  testimony  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  is  without  evidential  value,  save 
as  to  spiritual  things.  This  is  fully  discussed  under  The  Mormon's 
Ultimate  Test  of  Truth.     Suffice  it  to  say  here,  the  testimony  of  the 

30 


spirit  is  never  proof  of  material  facts.     To  accept  it  as  such  is  to  ab- 
dicate reason,  and  enthrone  credulity  and  superstition. 

Faith  has  its  foundation  in  reason;  credulity  is  belief,  without  in- 
tellectual proof,  or  against  proof. 

6.  The  sixth  reason  is  a  very  unfortunate  one  for  the  author. 
No  one  asks  to  make  an  exception  of  the  plates.  His  illustration  of 
the  original  autographs  of  the  Bible,  is  more  unfortunate  still. 

The  cases  are  not  parallel.  A  good  illustration  would  be  where 
some  one  claimed  to  have  in  his  sole  possession  an  original  manu- 
script of  one  of  the  books  of  the  Bible,  say  the  autograph  letter  which 
Paul  wrote  with  his  own  hand  to  the  Galatians.  Instead,  however,  of 
showing  it,  he  hides  it  away  from  all  except  some  intimates  who 
never  saw  an  ancient  manuscript  and  know  nothing  of  Greek;  claims 
it  "sacred,"  and  finally  declares  it  was  taken  away  by  an  angel;  and 
to  prove  he  was  not  guilty  of  falsehood,  but  was  speaking  the  truth, 
he  gives  out  a  pretended  translation  of  that  letter,  which,  when  exam- 
ined, proves  to  be  nothing  more  than  a  copy  of  our  English  transla- 
tion with  a  few  unimportant  changes.  What  would  be  that  man's 
standing  among  Biblical  scholars?  How  much  credence  would  be 
given  his  story  by  men  of  intelligence? 

Just  as  much  as  Joseph  Smith  deserves,  who  did  exactly  so  as 
we  have  supposed  this  other  man  to  do.  He  would  be  a  "candidate 
for  ridicule  and  contempt,"  and  sure  of  his  election. 

7.  The  last  reason  is  the  most  unreasonable  of  all.  The  plates 
were  "sacred"  and  to  exhibit  them  would  be  a  crime.  Can  you  find  a 
parallel  in  all  the  dealings  of  God  with  his  ancient  people?  The 
nearest  like  it  is  the  ark  with  the  tables  of  the  law.  But  these  were 
seen  and  handled  by  scores  of  people,  and  for  five  hundred  years 
offered  the  opportunity  of  verification.  The  law  was  not  hidden  in 
an  unknown  tongue,  but  was  written  in  the  speech  of  the  people, 
copied  and  widely  disseminated. 

The  claim  that  the  plates  were  sacred  is  pure  fiction.  They  were 
made  of  unsacred  gold,  or  of  a  metal  that  looked  like  gold,  by  men. 
(Martin  Harris,  "that  wicked  man,"  declared  that  he  handled  the 
plates  on  his  knees  for  an  hour  and  a  half,  one  day.)  Nearly  every 
one  who  helped  to  write  the  records,  made  his  own  plates.  The 
language  was  not  sacred,  but  the  idolatrous  language  of  Egypt. 

The  engravings  were  not  sacred,  for  Joseph  copied  some  of  them 
and  showed  them  to  men.  In  truth  he  sought  to  secure  a  certificate 
of  their  genuineness  from  a  learned  man,  who  pronounced  them  "any- 
thing but  Egyptian." 

31 


What  was  written  on  the  plates  was  not  sacred,  for  Joseph  has- 
tened to  translate  it,  print  and  bind  it  in  a  book  and  sell  it  for  $1.50. 

The  man  himself  was  not  sacred,  for  he  confesses  he  fell  into 
many  foolish  errors  and  was  "led  into  temptations  offensive  in  the 
sight  of  God." 

The  box  was  not  sacred,  for  it  was  made  of  ordinary  stones, 
buried  in  common  earth  and  covered  with  a  stone. 

Nephi  does  say  that  he  doesn't  write  anything  on  them  but  what 
he  considers  "sacred";  that  is,  he  wrote  two  sets  of  plates,  one  the 
secular,  or  profane,  the  history  of  wars,  governments  and  practices  of 
his  people;  the  other,  the  small  plates,  containing  the  prophecies,  the 
preaching  and  the  ministries  of  his  people.  In  that  sense  the  plates 
were  sacred — sacred  history — but  in  no  other. 

VII. 

THE  NEPHITE  PLATES. 

The  Book  of  Mormon  speaks  frequently  of  the  plates  and  the  en- 
gravings on  them.  It  is  said  that  these  characters  were  in  "Reformed 
Egyptian";  but  this  can  not  be  true  of  the  first  books  the  original  plates 
of  Nephi,  for  he  made  the  record  "in  the  language  of  the  Egyptians." 
In  the  course  of  a  thousand  years,  the  characters  may  have  changed 
somewhat,  so  that  Mormon  can  call  them  "reformed  Egyptian." 

Joseph  Smith  says,  in  his  autobiography,  concerning  them:  "They 
(the  plates)  were  filled  with  engravings  in  Egyptian  characters."  He 
also  gives  their  size  as  six  by  eight  inches,  and  the  block  of  plates, 
about  six  inches  thick. 

This  wrould  make  a  block  of  gold  containing  288  cubic  inches. 
Allowing  one-tenth  for  loss  of  weight  by  being  separated  into  leaves, 
the  gold  bible  would  weight  one  hundred  and  ninety-five  pounds 
avoirdupois,  and  be  worth  $58,500. 

Joseph's  story  makes  it  appear  that  he  treated  this  weight  as  a 
light  matter.  His  mother  says  that  he  took  them  from  the  place 
where  he  first  hid  them,  wrapped  them  in  his  linen  frock,  placed  them 
under  his  arm,  and  started  for  home;  that  on  his  way  he  left  the  road 
and  came  to  a  large  windfall,  when,  as  he  was  jumping  over  a  log,  a 
man  sprang  up  from  behind  it  and  gave  him  a  heavy  blow  with  a  gun. 
Joseph  turned  around,  knocked  the  man  down,  and  then  ran  at  the  top 
of  his  speed.  A  half  a  mile  further  on,  he  was  attacked  again  in  like 
manner,  knocked  this  man  down  also,  and  ran  again.  The  third  time 
he    was    assailed,    and    struck    the    man,    dislocating   his    own   thumb. 

32 


When  he  came  near  to  the  house,  he  threw  himself  down  in  a  fence 
corner,  to  get  his  breath,  and  when  he  reached  home  he  was  speech- 
less from  fright  and  fatigue. 

VIII. 
THE  NEPHITE  CHARACTERS 

We  give  herewith  a  fac-simile  copy  of  some  of  the  Nephite  char- 
acters, which  once  belonged  to  David  Whitmer,  but  are  now  a  part  of 
the  Berrian  collection  of  Mormon  historic  works  in  the  Lenox  Library, 
New  York.  Their  genuineness  has  never  been  questioned.  Plate  I 
gives  us  the  characters  as  they  appear  drawn  by  Joseph's  own  hand. 
Note  the  word  "Caractors"  as  he  wrote  it.  By  selecting  the  familiar 
characters  out  of  those  in  Plate  I  we  get  A  of  Plate  II,  and  by  clas- 
sifying them  and  combining  them  we  have  B  of  Plate  II. 

Summarizing  them  we  have  seventeen  letters  of  the  Roman  Al- 
phabet; all  the  Roman  numerals  except  the  figure  7;  four  of  our  com- 
mon punctuation  marks;  three  arithmetical  signs;  eight  printer's 
signs;  tally  marks  of  five  and  ten;  the  sign  of  the  English  pound,  and 

tr    J-C  if.   cr  ££    (i  4  £  t  Ai-i  ))c  %->X  TV 2<z>l»> 

->  "/'in,,     j  A  r    j    ^    £.   CJ.Q  ^  uy     £$  £    1?.   &&+Z  f  $CZ 
Picxtc    I. 

that  of  the  ounce,  Apothecary  weight;  six  combinations  of  figures; 
and  most  convincing  of  all  we  have  JOE,  upside  down,  and  JOS  up- 
side down  and  backwards.  When  we  study  the  meaningless  char- 
acters, we  find  a  few  that  resemble  Greek,  some  Hebrew,  some  Arabic, 
but  they  are  all  chance  resemblances. 

These  "caractors"  are  gravely  held  forth  to  the  world  as  Egyp- 
tian hieroglyphics,  written  GOO  B.  C. 

The  Mormons  have  many  educated  men,  men  of  wide  scholarship 
and  of  eminent  reputation  as  men  of  unimpeachable  moral  character. 

33 


If  any  one  of  them  will  undertake  to  show  that  the  foregoing  is  unfair 
or  illogical,  or  if  he  prefers  to  prove  them  true  characters  and  even 
near-Egyptian,  he  may  use  space  in  our  September  number,  not  to  ex- 
ceed 1,500  words. 

Study  Plate  I  carefully,  turning  in  your  hand  so  as  to  place  the 
characters  in  columns,  and  then  upside  down,  and  you  will  make  such 
discoveries   as  justify   Prof.   Anthon's   characterization  of  them: 

3k    *£     &>    L47C't  A+J  I'C&'A  2  So) 
•    D  l~  3    CJ~£L2g*  iLUMJJJ  c*  l*M+** 


B. 


'  3  3  4-5  <*&<jQ  i  Z-'  Jo  It  °k    ^  u 

P/rttc  M 

The  entire  question  of  the  genuineness  of  the  so-called  Nephite 
characters,  and  consequently  the  genuineness  of  the  Book  of  Mormon 
as  the  records  of  the  Nephites,  might  rest  here. 

The  "caractors"  disprove  the  claim  of  Joseph,  and  fasten  upon 
him  the  attempt  to  feist  upon  the  world  a  set  of  Egyptian  hiero 
glyphics  that  dares  not  meet  even  a  common  sense  test. 

IX. 
THE  TRANSLATION. 

"Relative  to  the  manner  of  translating  the  B.  M.  the 
prophet  himself  has  said  but  little.  'Through  the  medium  of 
the  Urium  and  Thummim  I  translated  the  record  by  the  gift 
and  power  of  God,'  is  the  most  extended  published  statement 
made  by  him  upon  the  subject."  Roberts. 
Joseph  did  not  seem  to  sense  the  importance  of  a  clear  statement 

34 


as  to  his  method  of  translation,  a  matter  of  really  great  im- 
portance.    Oliver  Cowdery  says:     "I  wrote  with  my  own  pen 
the  entire  B.  M.  (save  a  few  pages)  as  it  fell  from  the  lips  of 
the  Prophet  Joseph  Smith,  as  he  translated  by  the  gift  and 
power  of  God,  by  the  means  of  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  or 
as  it  is  called  by  that  book,  'Holy  Interpreters.'  " 
While   Joseph    and    Oliver   both   attribute   the    translation    to   the 
aid  of  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  yet  the  evidence  is  altogether  in  proof 
that  this  was  a  late  invention.     The  translation  was  by  the  stone. 

Oliver  Cowdery's  statement  was  made  in  184S.  The  term  Urim 
and  Thummim,  is  found  only  in  later  Mormon  literature,  does  not  ap- 
pear in  the  Book  of  Commandments,  published  in  1833,  and  is  dis- 
puted by  every  one  of  the  witnesses. 

That  he  used  the  stone  is  the  testimony  of  all  who  have  spoken. 
He  could  not  translate  without  his  "interpreters." 

Had  he  translated  solely  by  the  gift  and  power  of  God,  without 
the  use  of  the  interpreters,  the  problem  would  be  simple  and  two 
hypotheses  only  would  be  necessary:  (1)  That  Joseph  himself  was 
inspired  of  God  to  understand  the  characters  and  to  render  them  into 
English;  or  (2)  The  gift  and  power  of  God  was  directed  to  the  char- 
acters, and  converted  them  into  English,  before  his  eyes. 

Under  the  first  hypothesis,  Joseph  would  have  been  the  inspired 
translator;  under  the  second,  it  is  God,  by  means  of  the  stone. 

But  it  was  not  done  in  so  simple  a  manner,  although  that  was 
the  method  of  God's  prophets  of  old,  as  is  seen  in  the  interpreting  of 
the  writing  by  Daniel;  but  a  material  medium  was  necessary  to  Joseph. 
Without  the  stone,  he  was  helpless;  by  means  of  it  he  translated.  No 
reference  is  made  anywhere  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  inspiring  the  man. 
God  had  no  part  in  it,  personally  or  independently  of  the  material 
means.     The  power  was  in  the  stone. 

A  familiar  illustration  is  found  in  the  art  of  photography.  Just 
as  in  the  translation  we  have  the  man,  the  interpreters  and  the  plates, 
so  in  picture-making  we  have  the  man,  the  camera  and  the  object. 
The  artist  is  helpless  without  his  instrument,  for  the  power  to  take 
the  picture  resides  in  that.  So  Joseph  was  helpless  without  the  seer- 
stone,  for  the  power  to  translate  was  in  that.  When,  therefore,  he 
says,  "I  translated  the  plates  by  the  gift  and  power  of  God,"  he  means 
that  the  "interpreters"  was  the  gift  of  God  and  the  power  to  translate. 
This  is  not  conjecture,  nor  hypothesis.  The  "interpreters"  is  fully 
explained  in  the  Book  of  Mormon.  In  Mos.  28:13,  14  we  learn  these 
facts  about  it:      Mosiah  had  "wherewith"  he  can   look  and  translate 

35 


all  records  of  an  ancient  date;    and  "it   (the  wherewith  he   can  loo1; 
and  translate)  is  the  gift  of- God." 

The  magic  power  was  altogether  in  the  interpreters,  for  any  one 
could  look  in  and  "see  things,"  although,  if  not  commanded,  "he  might 
look  for  what  he  ought  not,  and  so  perish." 

Whoever  was  commanded  to  look  in  them,  could  know  of  "past 
things  and  things  to  come;  secret  things,  and  things  not  known  might 
be  revealed." 

The  "interpreters"  had  been  handed  down  from  generation  to 
generation,  for  the  purpose  of  interpreting  language.  Mosiah,  by  its 
means,  translated  the  plates  of  Ether  from  the  language  of  the  Jared- 
ites,  to  that  of  the  Nephites. 

This  magic  instrument  is  called  in  the  Book  of  Mormon  "a  stone," 
"directors"   and   "interpreters." 

Alma  27:23  affords  us  another  proof.     This  is  a  prophecy, 

in  which  the  Lord  said,  "I  will  preserve  unto  my  servant  Ga- 

zelem,  a  stone  which  shall  shine  forth  in  darkness  unto  light." 
Joseph  appropriated  the  name  "Gazelem"  to  himself,  D.  and  C.  104:26, 
and  he  used  the  stone  for  the  purpose  which  the  Lord  named.  In 
translating  he  put  the  stone  in  his  hat,  and  then  immersed  his  face  in 
the  hat  and  drew  it  close  about  his  face  to  exclude  the  light,  and  "in 
the  darkness  a  spiritual  light  shone"  and  Joseph  saw  the  characters 
and  the  translation. 

x. 

JOSEPH  USED  ONLY  THE  STONE.  AND 

TRANSLATED  WITHOUT 

THE  PLATES. 

Those  who  speak  from  personal  knowledge,  all,  save  Oliver  Cow- 
dery  above  noted,  and  his  testimony  dates  back  to  1848  only,  unite  in 
testifying  to  this  fact.     Martin  Harris,  his  first  scribe: 

"By  the  aid  of  the  seer-stone,  sentences  would  appear  and 
were  read  by  the  prohet  and  written  by  Martin  and  when  fin- 
ished he  would  say  Written,  and  if  correctly  written  that 
sentence  would  disappear  and  another  would  appear  in  its 
place,  but  if  not  written  correctly  it  remained  until  corrected, 
so  that  the  translation  was  just  as  it  was  engraven  on  the 
plates,  precisely  in  the  language  then  used." 

Harris  wrote  one  hundred  and  sixteen  pages  of  the  first  transla- 
te 


tion,  the  pages  that  were  lost,  and  is  competent  to  testify  from  per- 
sonal knowledge. 

Emma  Smith,  who  wrote  for  her  husband  before  Oliver  Cowdeiy 
came,  gave  this  testimony  to  her  son  Joseph:    ( 

"In  writing  for  your  father,  I  frequently  wrote  day  after 
day,  often  sitting  at  a  table  close  by  him,  he  sitting  with  his 
face  buried  in  his  hat,  with  the  stone  in  it,  and  dictating 
hour  after  hour  with  nothing  between  us." 

David  Whitmer,  one  of  Joseph's  earliest  and  firmest  friends,  in 
whose  father's  house  much  of  the  translation  was  made,  and  whose 
brother  John  was  one  of  Joseph's  scribes,  gives  us  very  clear  and 
very  explicit  testimony: 

"Joseph  Smith  would  put  the  seer-stone  into  a  hat,  draw- 
ing it  closely  about  his  face  to  exclude  the  light;  and  in  the 
darkness  a  spiritual  light  would  shine.  A  piece  of  something 
resembling  parchment  would  appear,  and  on  that  appeared 
the  writing.  One  character  at  a  time  would  appear  and  under 
it  was  the  translation  in  English. 

Brother  Joseph  would  read  off  the  English  to  Oliver  Cow- 
dery,  who  was  his  principal  scribe,  and  when  it  was  written 
down  and  repeated  to  Joseph,  to  see  if  it  was  correct,  then  it 
would   disappear   and   another   character  with   the  interpreta- 
tion would  appear.    Thus  the  B.  M.  was  translated  by  the  gift 
and  power  of  God,  and  not  by  the  power  of  man." 
This  testimony  was  fixed  in  the  faith  of  the  first  Mormons  and 
it  prevailed  for  seventy-five  years.     They  believed,  they  preached  and 
their    literature    maintained    that    the    stone    translated    the    Nephite 
records.     It  is  inextricably  interwoven  into  their  arguments.     If  there 
was  any  error  in  this  early  belief,  Joseph  never  corrected  it. 

Eld.  Geo.  Reynolds  makes  use  of  it  in  his  Myth  of  the  Manu- 
script Found,  p.  71,  to  account  for  the  brief  time  required  for  the 
translation  of  the  B.  M. 

"It  must  be  remembered  that  the  translation  was  accom- 
plished by  no  ordinary  means.  It  was  done  by  divine  aid.  *  *  * 
All  was  simple  as  when  a  clerk  writes  from  dictation.  The 
translation  of  the  characters  appeared  on  the  Urim  and 
Thummim,  sentence  by  sentence,  and  as  soon  as  one  was  cor- 
rectly transcribed  the  next  would  appear." 

Other  quotations  might  be  given,  but  this  is  unnecessary,  for  all 
early  authorities  agree.  The  stone  did  it  all,  and  Joseph  was  merely 
the  reading  clerk. 

37 


When  intelligent  men  began  to  read  the  B.  M.,  no  longer  be- 
wildered by  the  glamour  of  their  first  enthusiasm,  they  discovered 
that  the  book  was  crude  in  style,  words  were  misspelled  and  used  in- 
correctly, the  rules  of  grammar  and  rhetoric  were  flagrantly  violated, 
modernisms  were  abundant,  many  plagiarisms  marred  it  as  an  orig- 
inal message,  and  whole  chapters  were  quoted  literally  from  our 
English  Bible.  Hence  they  began  to  ask  the  reason  for  these  things: 
and  "Who  is  responsible?" 

Oliver  Cowdery  may  have  been  responsible  for  the  misspelled 
words,  but  God  was  responsible  for  all  the  rest,  for  the  book  was  a 
correct  copy  of  the  language  of  God. 

The  early  defenders  of  the  book  met  these  charges  and  the  ridi- 
cule which  logical  criticisms  evoked,  with  sublime  indifference.  It 
was  God's  book  and  "His  own  voice  had  proclaimed  that  the  transla- 
tion was  correct;  what  is  man  that  he  should  reply  to  God?" 

Men  of  better  education  followed  them  who  were  sensitive  to 
these  flings,  and  they  sought  a  way  of  escape.  Recently,  Eld.  B.  H. 
Roberts,  whose  skill  as  a  writer  and  controversialist  is  recognized 
by  all,  the  ablest  apologist  of  Mormonism  the  church  has  produced, 
has  invented  a  new  theory.  He  confesses  he  was  driven  to  this  by 
the  necessities  of  the  conditions  that  confronted  him. 

Speaking  of  the  old  theory  as  to  the  translation— which,  by  the 
way  is  not  a  "theory"  but  a  historical  fact  attested  by  the 
original  witnesses — he  declares  that  "to  advocate  it  before 
intelligent  and  educated  people,  is  necessarily  to  invite  ridi- 
cule and  make  of  those  who  advocate  it  candidates  for  con- 
tempt." 

He  adds,  as  if  there  is  no  room  to  dispute  his  statement,  there 
is  "no  use  in  resisting  the  matter,  the  old  theory  must  be  abandoned." 
How  did  he  reach  this  revolutionary  conclusion?  Has  he  discov- 
ered any  new  testimony?  None  whatever.  Has  he  received  a  revela- 
tion from  God,  correcting  some  stupid  blunder  of  former  churchmen 
of  high  and  low  degree?  No;  the  heavens  are  shut  up  again  and  the 
"prophets,  seers  and  revelators"  have  had  no  message  from  the  Al 
mighty  for  over  sixty  years. 

He  is  driven  by  pure  reason,  by  cold  logic,  by  the  fear  of  ridi- 
cule, to  abandon  one  of  the  strongholds  of  his  church. 

Tn  retreating  from  this  position  he  impeaches  the  infallibility  of 
the  priesthood,  "a  higher  degree  of  priesthood,"  to  use  his  own  defini- 
tion, than  his  own. 

If  he   is   correct,  then   reason,   intelligence  and   a  decent  respect 

33 


for  the  opinions  of  educated  and  intelligent  men  are  a  better  help  to 
truth,  than  all  their  "inspiration."  The  change  is  demanded,  not  by 
"the  spirit  of  revelation  and  prophecy"  which  they  claim  to  possess, 
but  by  their  sensitiveness  to  intelligent  criticism,  from  without.  The 
leaven  has  been  a  long  time  working,  but  it  has  worked. 

Alexander  Campbell  exposed  this  absurdity,  Eld.  John  Hyde 
proved  it,  and  Rev.  Mr.  Lamb  illustrated  it. 

The  Mormon  world  "do  move,"  and  we  may  hope  that  in  less 
than  another  seventy-five  years,  some  other  bright,  logical  mind  and 
sensitive  soul  will  rise  up  and  persuade  the  Mormon  Authorities  to 
abandon  another  "old  theory,"  one  that  is  much  more  the  subject  of 
ridicule  by  learned  nad  educated  men,  viz.,  that  The  Book  of  Mormon 
is    true. 

XI. 
ELDER  ROBERTS'  NEW  THEORY. 

In  justice  to  Mr.  Roberts,  whom  we  have  named,  we  give  his  ex- 
planation: 

"It  should  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  this  translation, 
though  accomplished  by  means  of  'Interpreters,'  and  the  seer- 
stone,  was  a  mere  mechanical  procedure,  that  no  faith,  or 
mental  or  spiritual  effort  was  required  on  the  prophet's  part; 
that  the  instrument  did  all  while  he  who  used  them  did 
nothing  but  look  and  repeat  mechanically  what  he  saw  there 
reflected.  *  *  * 

"The  translation  required  the  utmost  concentration  of 
mental  and  spiritual  force  possessed  by  the  prophet,  in  order 
to  exercise  the  gift  of  translation  through  the  means  of  the 
sacred  instrument  provided  for  that  work." 

Compare  this  theory,  merely  a  supposition  of  Eld.  Roberts,  with 
the  statement  of  facts  given  by  Harris  and  Whitmer,  already  quoted. 
Either  his  theory  is  wrong  or  their  testimony  is  false. 

Mr.  Roberts  is  attempting,  by  the  invention  of  his  new  theory,  to 
lift  the  responsibility  of  the  many  errors  of  the  book  from  God  and 
to  lay  them  upon  the  lack  of  knowledge  and  the  limited  language  of 
Joseph.     He  realized  his  dilemma;  but  his  own  prophet  disputes  him: 
"November  28,  1841.     In  council  with  the  twelve  Joseph 
Smith  said,   T   told   the   brethren  that  the   Book   of   Mormon 
was  the  most  correct  of  any  book  on  earth.'  "     Compendium, 
p.  273. 

39 


Test  the  Book  of  Mormon  by  either  theory  of  translation  and 
the  dilemma  is  equally  fatal. 

Nephi,  the  man  that  bulks  largest  in  the  Book  of  Mormon,  in  re- 
porting   the   revelation   of   the    Spirit    to    him,    records    the    angel    as 

saying:     "Behold  the  Virgin  whom  thou  seest  is  the   Mother 

of  God,  according  to  the  flesh."   (1st  Ed.) 

That  this  was  an  error  is  confessed  by  the  change  which  has 
been  made  by  some  reviser  in  later  editions,  to  read,  "the  Mother  of 
the  Son  of  God." 

When  Joseph  gave  that  out  as  the  translation  of  certain  charac- 
ters, Cowdery  wrote  it  and  then  read  it  to  Joseph,  and  the  magic 
stone  approved  it,  by  the  sentence  fading  away  and  another  taking 
its  place.  According  to  the  old  theory  God  was  responsible  for  that 
untruth,  since  it  was  "by  His  gift  and  power,"  the  translation  was 
made. 

If  Mr.  Roberts  is  right  and  the  error  was  due  to  Joseph's  ignor- 
ance of  the  doctrine  of  God,  it  vitiates  the  credibility  of  his  whole 
translation.  The  gift  and  power  of  God  was  not  potent  enough  to 
keep  him  from  falling  into  palpable  error;  then  the  whole  translation 
falls  to  the  plane  of  Joseph's  limited  knowledge.  Let  us  apply  the 
test  in  another  instance.  This  same  Nephi  wrote,  or  Joseph  trans- 
lated it  and  Cowdery  wrote: 

"Adam  fell  that  men  might  be";  how  do  we  know  that  he  was 
not  as  much  in  error  there,  as  in  the  former  translation?  Again: 
Over  in  the  Book  of  Ether,  Joseph  found  something  that  he  translated 

thus:      "They  did  make  all  manner  of  tools  to  till  the  earth, 

both  to  plough  and  to  sow,  to  reap  and  to  hoe,  and  also  to 

thrash." 

Was  that  in  the  old  Jaredite  records,  a  people  who  left  "the  rest 
of  mankind  at  the  great  tower,  Babel,  and  lived  separate  from  the 
race,  or  did  Joseph  weave  in  a  colloquialism  of  western  New  York? 

If  his  translation  is  true,  then  long  before  the  Christian  era,  they 
had  in  America,  plows  and  seed-sowers  and  reapers  and  hoes  and 
threshing  machines,   and  factories   to  make  them. 

Evidently  he  found  nothing  of  the  kind  there.  It  is  as  flagrant 
an  anachronism,  as  it  would  be  if  attributed  to  the  ancient  Assyrians. 

Again  we  find  in  the  Book  of  Mormon,  lengthy  quotations  from 
our  English  Bible.  1st  Nephi,  600  to  545  B.  C,  quotes  seventeen 
chapters  of  Isaiah.  Comparing  them  with  our  Bible,  we  find  them  so 
nearly  an  exact  copy,  that  no  other  conclusion  is  possible  than  that 
they  were  copied   literally.     How  does  that  come?     Eld.  Robert's  ex- 

40 


planation  is,  that  the  work  of  translation  required  the  concentration 
of  all  powers,  mental  and  spiritual,  resulting  in  mental  weariness. 

When,  therefore,  Joseph  saw  that  the  Nephite  record  was  quoting 
the  Scriptures,  that  the  Bible  and  the  record  paralleled  each  other, 
"he  adopted  our  English  translation,"  to  ease  himself  of  the  labor  of 
translating,  and  because  "The  English  translation  was  superior  to  his 
own." 

The  first  is  the  recourse  of  a  lazy  man,  and  in  Joseph's  case  was 
criminal.  He  was  shirking  a  sacred  duty.  If  the  second  reason  is 
valid,  it  is  a  fatal  confession  of  failure. 

Joseph  claimed  to  have  a  gift  from  God  to  translate;  but  Eld. 
Roberts  concedes  that  the  work  of  men  who  had  only  consecrated 
learning  to  aid  them,  gave  a  better  expression  to  the  Scriptures  than 
he,  the  heaven-endowed  translator,  could  do. 

Mr.  Roberts'  explanation  raises  other  difficulties.  If  he  did  not 
translate,  but  copied,  how  did  he  know  when  it  ended,  and  how  did  he 
catch  those  slight  changes  and  variations  he  introduced? 

And  how  comes  it  that  his  principal  quotations  recognize  our 
modern  divisions  of  the  Bible  into  chapters,  the  beginnings  and  end- 
ings of  our  chapters  being  the  beginnings  and  endings  of  his  quota- 
tions? It  would  be  a  marvelous  thing,  if  the  old  Nephite  Bible  was 
divided  into  chapters,  and  these  exactly  coincided  with  the  divisions 
of  our  Bible  made  by  Cardinal  Hugo  in  the  thirteenth  century,  A.  D. 
Marvelous?     Yes,  too  marvelous  for  belief. 

These  contradictions  of  history  with  hypothesis,  the  difficulties 
which  go  with  both,  the  oonclusions  and  inferences,  which  follow,  not 
only  bar  the  way  to  a  belief  in  the  Book  of  Mormon  and  the  divinity 
of  the  mission  of  Joseph  Smith,  and  make  it  impossible  for  men  of 
learning  and  integrity  to  become  Latter  Day  Saints,  but  these  ques- 
tions will  also  eventually  be  taken  up  by  higher  critics  among  the 
Mormons  themselves.  And,  mark  this  prediction,  the  result  will  be 
to  throw  over  both  history  and  theory,  leaving  no  foundation  for 
Mormon  faith  to  rest  upon,  but  blind  infatuation. 

XII. 

THE  STONE  SUPPLIED  BOTH  THE  TEXT 
AND  THE  TRANSLATION. 

The  plates  were  not  in  the  hat  when  Joseph  was  translating.  They 
couldn't  be  put  into  his  hat — Emma  says  he  used  "his"  hat — if  he  had 
tried.     The   plates  were   six  by   eight   inches,   or   twenty-eight   inches 

41 


around  them,  and  six  inches  thick.  They  wouldn't  go  into  any  hat 
but  one  of  very  extraordinary  size,  and  then  the  stone,  which  was 
nearly  as  large  as  a  goose  egg,  was  to  go  in,  too. 

Read  Whitmer's  and  Joseph's  wife's  testimony  again,  and  they 
prove  that  the  plates  could  not  have  been  in  the  hat,  although  they 
do  not  mention  them.  But  Isaac  Hale  gives  positive  testimony  on 
this   point. 

"The  manner  in  which  he  (Joseph)  pretended  to  read  and 

interpret  the  plates  was  the  same  as  when  he  looked  for  the 

money  diggers,  with  the  stone  in  the  hat  and  his  hat  over  his 

face,  while  the   book   of   plates  was  at  the   same  time   hid    in 

the  woods." 

Mr.  Hale  knew  Joseph  well  for  he  boarded  him  while  the  latter 
was  employed  by  Mr.  Stoal  to  hunt  for  secret  treasure,  and  Joseph 
ran  away  with  his  daughter  and  married  her. 

He  knew  his  method  of  translating,  for  Joseph  and  Emma  lived 
with  him  for  a  time  after  returning  from  Palmyra,  while  the  transla- 
tion was  going  on.     His  testimony  is  clear,  explicit  and  convincing. 

Orson  F.  Whitney,  one  of  the  apostles,  acknowledges  (Eighty- 
second  Annual  Conference,  19,12,  p.  49),  that  Joseph  "could  sit  in  his 
father's  humble  cottage,  while  the  record  was  secreted  at  a  distance, 
and  could  read  what  was  on  the  plates." 

All  of  this  leads  us  to  the  serious  question: 

What  was  the  use  of  all  that  pother  to  get  possession  of  the 
plates  and  to  keep  his  enemies  from  robbing  him  of  them  after  he 
had  got  them;  for  Joseph  could  have  translated  them  as  they  lay  in 
the  box,  as  well  as  when  they  were  hid  out  in  the  woods? 

Then  ,as  to  his  witnesses,  after  his  translation  was  completed,. 
he  could  have  taken  the  witnesses  out  to  Cumorah  and  with  Moroni, 
his  angel,  with  Moses  and  Elijah  and  Elias  and  John  the  Baptist,  and 
Peter,  James  and  John,  the  apostles,  he  could  have  shown  them  the 
whole  assortment  and  received  all  his  "keys"  at  once,  for  "the  new 
dispensation." 

That  would  have  been  a  demonstration  worth  while,  and  fully 
as  creditable  as  the  program  he  followed. 

XIII. 
THE  LANGUAGE  OF  THE  NEPHITES. 

The  Nephites  were  Jews,  inheritors  of  a  thousand  years  of  her- 
edity.    Behind  them  lay  a  history  which  began  with  Abraham,  their 

42 


father;  their  people  were  solidified  into  a  homogeneous  nation  under 
the  power  of  the  Egyptian  oppressor;  they  had  Moses  for  their  leader, 
their  lawgiver,  the  wisest  and  strongest  ruler  time  has  yet  enrolled; 
theirs  were  the  fathers,  wrho  were  baptized  unto  Moses  by  the  cloud 
and  in  the  sea,  who  marched  from  Sinai,  where  Jehovah  had  veiled 
His  majesty  in  thick  cloud,  and  uttered  His  voice  in  the  thunder  that 
shook  the  mountain  to  its  foundations,  to  Jordan,  where  they  crossed 
over  as  they  had  passed  through  the  sea,  dry  shod;  under  Joshua 
they  had  wrrested  their  land  from  the  Canaanite  and  builded  their 
cities  and  developed  their  lands;  David  was  their  king  and  psalmist, 
and  Solomon,  their  pride  and  glory. 

Jerusalem,  "beautiful  for  situation,  the  joy  of  the  whole  earth," 
was  their  home.  Thrice  every  year  they  had  seen  the  tribes  come  up 
from  near  and  distant  lands,  unto  the  testimony  of  Israel;"  daily, 
they  witnessed  the  temple  service,  and  its  stately  worship  wras  one  of 
the  most  familiar  things  to  them  of  all  their  life. 

The  Nephites  shared  fully  in  that  momentum  which  has  kept 
the  Jews  an  unchanged  race,  although  they  have  become  parts  of 
many  nations,  their  religion  and  their  pride  surviving  two  thousand 
years  of  dispersion  and  oppression.  But  the  Book  of  Mormon  repre- 
sents the  Nephites  as  being  of  an  altogether  different  fiber  of  char- 
acter. 

They  left  Jerusalem  and  native  land  without  a  recorded  syllable 
of  regret;  they  turned  their  backs  upon  the  promises  and  prophecies 
of  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah  of  a  return  and  restoration  of  the  nation,  with 
a  future  glory  far  excelling  even  the  greatest  splendor  of  the  past; 
they  broke  away  from  the  old  religion,  and  wandered  half  the  circuit 
of  the  earth,  to  a  new,  unsettled  continent  with  perpetual  isolation 
from  their  kindred,  and  counted  it  a  compensation  to  have  escaped 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  and  the  captivity  of  their  people.  They 
came  to  the  new  world  absolutely  free  to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of 
their  fathers,  to  develop  to  perfection  the  heritage  of  their  nation's 
past. 

Immediately,  however,  and  without  any  sufficient  cause,  they  de- 
velop two  characteristics  that  were  utterly  anti-Jewish,  viz.,  they 
begin  to  follow  Christ,  and  finally  develop  a  Christian  church  150 
years  before  Christ  came,  and  also  discard  the  language  in  which 
their  Holy  Scriptures  had  always  been  written,  and  adopt  instead  the 
idolatrous  language  of  Egypt. 

They  brought,  so  the  Book  of  Mormon  tells  us,  a  freak  copy  of 
the  Jewish  Scriptures,  in  the  hieroglyphics  of  Egypt,  and  with  it  the 

43 


genealogy  of  Joseph's  family  engraved  on  brass  plates. 

Only  one  person  in  the  colony,  Lehi,  could  read  this  profane 
record.  Instead  of  translating  it  into  the  language  of  Abraham  and 
Moses  and  David  and  the  prophets,  he  perpetuated  the  monstrosity 
and  fixed  the  custom  of  having  all  copies  of  it  made  in  the  same  idol- 
atrous language,  and  all  records  of  their  subsequent  history  pre- 
served in  the  same  way.  Yet  the  people  used  the  Hebrew,  their 
"mother  tongue,"  in  all  their  daily  life.  It  follows,  therefore,  that  the 
Nephites  were  a  bi-lingual  people  for  a  thousand  years.  Now  it  is  a 
teaching  of  history  that  where  two  languages  are  forced  upon  one 
people,  and  this  has  happened  many  times,  a  conflict  is  at  once  begun 
which  results  either  in  the  victory  of  one  tongue  over  the  other,  or  an 
assimilation  of  the  two  into  a  third  language  which  supplants  both. 

Yet  the  written  Egyptian  and  the  spoken  Hebrew  lived  in  perfect 
amity  among  the  Nephites  for  ten  centuries.  Another  anomalous 
condition  also  confronts  us,  in  this  supposed  event. 

The  Hebrew  was  the  more  expressive  and  perfect  language. 
Written  language  was  first  by  means  of  rude  pictures,  the  written  lan- 
guage of  primitive  man;  the  last  and  most  perfect  form  is  alphabetic, 
wherein  a  sound  is  represented  by  an  arbitrary  sign.  Under  the  first, 
the  meaning  is  always  imperfectly  expressed,  and  is  limited  to  a  very 
small  vocabulary.  Under  the  last,  every  vocal  sound  of  the  human 
voice  is  registered,  and  writing  becomes  co-extensive  with  human 
speech. 

The  Egyptian  hieroglyphics  are  ideographic,  a  form  of  writing 
midway  between  the  two,  and  therefore  imperfect. 

The  Hebrew  was  the  most  versatile,  sympathetic  language  in  ex- 
istence, 600  B.  C.  It  responded  accurately  to  the  human  voice,  so 
that  to  read  one  of  the  Psalms  gave  the  reader  all  the  meaning  and 
passion  of  the  writer,  as  perfectly  as  if  he  had  heard  David  recite  it. 

The  Egyptian  hieroglyphics  were  utterly  incapable  of  this.  We 
are,  therefore,  asked  to  believe  that  a  prophet  of  God  caused  his 
people  to  degrade  their  language,  to  go  backward  in  recording  their 
holy  scriptures,  rejecting  the  language  in  which  that  scripture  had 
been  kept  for  a  thousand  years. 

The  alleged  fact  would  not  only  be  abhorrent  and  sacriligious  to 
a  Jew.  but  as  a  de-volution,  an  evolution  backwards,  absolutely  un- 
thinkable. 

Such  a  change  as  the  Book  of  Mormon  represents  must  have  had 
a  purpose  in  the  mind  of  the  writer.  It  is  not  a  mere  fancy,  wrought 
into  a   fabulous    story   without   design.     What  was   it?     Why   is   this 

44 


unnatural  and  impossible  fact  (?)  wrought  into  the  very  beginning 
of  the  Book  of  Mormon?  The  answer  is  found  in  the  anticipated 
necessities  of  the  coming  forth  of  the  book. 

The  invention  was  made  in  1830  A.  D.  and  not  in  600  B.  C.  The 
plates  must  be  written  in  a  language  which  "none  other  people 
knoweth,"  by  "means  prepared  for  the  interpretation  thereof,"  which 
means  no  other  man  on  earth  but  Joseph  Smith  could  use.  It  fits 
into  the  very  necessities  of  Joseph's  venture,  albeit  it  is  at  war  with 
all  the  lessons  of  history  and  with  common  sense. 

No  one  could  read  the  characters  except  Joseph,  and  therefore 
no  one  could  dispute  his  translation. 

Do  Mormons  feel  any  embarrassment  on  account  of  these  sus- 
picious conditions?  Some  do  not,  but  many  have  a  feeling  down  deep 
in  their  hearts,  in  spite  of  their  hereditary  faith,  a  fear  that  the  Book 
of  Mormon  is  a  deception. 

XIV. 
JOSEPH  AS  A  TRANSLATOR,  A  FAILURE. 

The  first  task  which  Joseph  had  in  hand,  after  he  got  possession 
of  his  plates,  was  to  translate  them  into  English.  For  this  he  had  no 
natural  fitness  whatever.  The  natural  gift  differs  altogether  from 
that  of  a  seer,  or  prophet.  It  needs  no  supernatural  endowment,  or 
divine  gift.  It  requires  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  two  languages, 
of  their  idioms,  their  genius,  their  delicate  shades  of  thought,  and  an 
ability  to  transfer  the  meaning  and  the  literary  character  of  the  orig- 
inal into  its  new  dress. 

Joseph  pretended  to  none  of  these  natural  qualifications  of  a 
translator,  but  he  claimed  to  have  a  special  gift  from  God.  That  this 
gift  was  inadequate,  his  work  amply  proves,  for  wherever  it  was  pos- 
sible, he  ceased  translating,  and  copied,  because  it  was  better  than 
he  could  do. 

There  are  two  general  objections  to  his  translation.  The  first 
has  reference  to  its  literary  character.  As  this  has  been  more  fully 
treated  in  the  chapter  on  the  Book  of  Mormon  as  Literature,  it  will 
suffice  to  say  here,  that  it  is  impossible  to  believe  that  a  book  written, 
presumably,  by  twenty  or  more  different  authors,  covering  the  history 
of  a  people  for  a  thousand  years,  could  exhibit  the  uniformly  one 
style  characteristic  of  the  Book  of  Mormon. 

Nor  does  it  answer  this  objection  to  reply  that  we  do  not  have 
the  original  writings   of  the   authors,  but  abridgements   only,   for  at 

45 


least  eight  of  the  books  were  not  touched  by  Mormon  and  Moroni. 
Even  if  they  were  all  abridged,  the  objection  would  hold. 

When  we  compare  the  writings  of  which  Joseph  was  the  un- 
doubted author,  with  the  above,  we  find  the  same  style,  the  same  re- 
dundancy of  words,  the  same  repetitions  innumerable,  just  as  the 
kaleidoscope  gives  us  many  figures  by  means  of  a  few  bits  of  colored 
glass. 

If  the  plates  which  Joseph  claimed  to  translate,  were  filled  with 
the  writings  of  men  of  individuality  and  genius,  then  he  has  robbed 
them  of  all  their  merit,  and  by  the  poverty  of  his  own  language  and 
his  lack  of  literary  skill,  he  is  a  failure,  as  a  translator. 

The  second  objection  is  a  more  serious  one,  one  that  can  not  be 
controverted.  He  failed  to  appreciate  and  meet*  the  extraordinary  op- 
portunity his  plates  gave  him. 

Bible  scholars,  for  centuries,  have  been  seeking  to  discover  au- 
thentic and  ancient  copies  of  the  Scripture.  When  such  a  discovery 
has  been  made,  as  that  of  the  ancient  manuscript  in  a  monastery  at 
the  foot  of  Mt.  Sinai  by  Tischendorf  in  IS 59,  it  creates  great  excite- 
ment in  the  whole  Christian  world.  Tischendorf,  finding  himself  in 
possession  of  this  invaluable  treasure,  could  not  sleep,  so  great  was 
his  ecstasy. 

At  the  first  opportunity  he,  with  the  help  of  two  others,  copied 
with  religious  care,  the  110,000  lines  of  the  Codex  and  noted  more 
than  12,000  changes  made  by  later  hands.  As  soon  as  possible  the 
entire  manuscript  was  printed  and  given  to  the  world. 

Now  Joseph  Smith  claimed  to  be  the  sole  custodian  for  more 
than  two  years,  of  the  Egyptian  translations  of  twenty  full  chapters 
of  the  Old  Testament,  a  new  version  of  these  parts  of  the  word  of 
God,  eighteen  of  them  having  been  brought  from  Jerusalem  600  years 
before  Christ.  Tischendorf's  manuscript  was  not  earlier  than  340 
A.  D.,  or  nearly  1,000  years  subsequent  to  the  date  of  Joseph's  copy. 

Joseph  claimed  to  possess  another  advantage  over  the  men  of 
Tischendorf's  day.  They  were  compelled  to  depend,  for  the  correct- 
ness of  their  translation,  upon  their  knowledge  of  the  Greek  lan- 
guage, and  their  ability  to  transfer  the  contents  of  the  Codex,  into 
English.  Their  human  qualifications  and  their  fidelity  in  performing 
their  task,  no  one  questions. 

But  Joseph  had  "a  gift  from  God"  for  this  work.  He  was  divinely 
endowed  to  translate.  Therefore,  if  he  spoke  the  truth  as  to  his 
plates  and  himself,  we  will  have  from  him  the  inspired  translation  of 
these  authentic  and  most  ancient  Scripture. 

46 


Our  interest  in  them  is  enhanced  when  we  find  that  two  of  these 
chapters,  Mai.  3  and  4,  got  into  the  Nephite  record,  through  the  mouth 
of  Jesus  Christ.  Therefore  these  two  chapters  are  not  only  ancient 
and  genuine,  but  they  have  been  authenticated  by  the  very  highest 
authority,  that  of  the  Son  of  God. 

Joseph  sat  down  to  his  task,  with  these  precious  documents  in 
his  possession,  and  translated  them  "by  the  gift  and  power  01  God." 

When  he  handed  out  his  work,  it  was  discovered  to  be  a  slavish 
copy — words,  punctuations,  even  italics  were  included — of  the  English 
Bible  Joseph  owned. 

If,  as  Mr.  Roberts  says,  the  old  theory  of  translation  must  be 
abandoned,  before  intelligent  and  educated  people,  because  it  merits 
ridicule,  what,  in  justice,  can  be  said  of  this  man  who  meets  such  a 
marvelous  opportunity  of  adding  to  the  world's  treasury  of  Bible 
knowledge,  and  does  no  better  than  a  mere  school-boy  can. 

The  truth,  stated  in  the  mildest  terms  possible,  is,  Joseph 
"flunked;"  he  fed  down  flat;  he  was  "weighed,  measured  and  "found 
wanting  as  a  translator.  And  what  adds  to  our  amazement  is,  the 
man  did  not  seem  to  sense  his  ridiculous  failure! 

To  say  that  Joseph  eased  himself  from  the  mental  and  spiritual 
concentration  the  translation  required,  is  not  to  excuse  him,  but  to 
exaggerate  his  fault. 

Nay!  It  was  more  than  a  fault;  it  was  a  crime. 

EXPLANATIONS. 

That  the  reader  may  follow  the  author  intelligently,  in  this  dis- 
cussion, the  explanations  of  names,  etc.,  are  given. 

Jaredites.  The  ancient  people  who  came  from  the  tower  of  Babel 
to  North  America,  grew  to  be  a  numerous  people,  and  600  B.  C.  com- 
mitted national  suicide,  annihilating  twelve  to  fifteen  millions  of 
people,  save  two  men.  This  slaughter  occurred  near  Manchester, 
Joseph  Smith's  home. 

Jared;  the  man  from  whom  the  people  were  named. 

The  Brother  of  Jared;  the  real  leader,  the  Moses  of  the  Jaredite 
exodus.     His  name  is  not  given. 

Coriantumr;  the  commander  of  one  faction,  and  the  only  sur- 
vivor out  of  millions,  who  fought  at  Ramah. 

Ether;  last  of  the  Jaredite  writers.  He  took  no  part  in  the  battle, 
but  hid  himself  in  the  cavity  of  a  rock.  He  wrote  a  comprehensive 
history  of  the  Jaredites  on  twenty-four  gold  plates  and  hid  them  in 
the  hill  Ramah,  where  the  Nephites  found  them  400  years  afterward. 

Nephites;   the  descendants  of  Lehi,  Ishmael  and  Zoram,  who  left 

47 


Jerusalem,    600    B.    C,    in    the    first    year    of    Zedekiah,    migrated    to 
America,  and  became  a  great  nation. 

They  soon  divided  into  two  nations,  known  as  Lamanites  and 
Nephites,  named  for  their  respective  kings.  They  all  were  converted 
to  Christ  and  lived  as  one  Christian  people  for  a  century;  finally  all 
apostalized,  and  became  "totally  depraved,"  not  only  in  religion  but 
also  in  morals  and  civilization.  They  divided  again  and  lought  under 
their  old  names,  and  in  400  A.  D.  the  Nephites  were  annihilated  and 
the  Lamanites  were  left  in  full  possession  of  the  land. 

Their  descendants  are  the  aborigines  of  the  two  Americas. 
Lehi;  a  Jewish  prophet,  and  the  leader  of  the  colony. 
Laman;  his  oldest  son,  who  opposed  Nephi,  and  became  the  leader 
of  one  faction  of  the  divided  people  and  gave  them  his  name. 

Nephi;  Lehi's  fifth  son,  the  founder  of  the  Nephite  nation,  who 
holds  the  most  conspicuous  place  in  their  history. 

Alma;  the  first  High  Priest,  the  founder  of  the  Church  of  Christ 
in  America,  about  150  B.  C. 

Mormon;  the  last  general  of  the  Nephites,  who  fell  with  his  230,- 
000  soldiers  in  the  battle  of  Cumorah,  with  all  the  Nephite  people, 
400  A.  D. 

Moroni;  son  of  Mormon,  who  escaped  the  battle,  finished  the 
Nephite  record  and  hid  the  plates  in  the  hill  Cumorah,  the  Ramah  of 
the  Jaredites,  two  miles  distant  from  Joseph's  home. 

Book  of  Mormon;  the  translation  by  Joseph  Smith  of  the  gold 
plates  he  found  in  Cumorah.  The  popular  edition  has  623  pages,  con- 
taining about  275,000  words. 

Book  of  Commandments;  a  small  book  printed  in  1833,  in  Inde- 
pendence, Mo.,  containing  Joseph's  revelations  to  September,  1831. 
These  were  destroyed  by  the  mob  in  July,  1S33,  only  a  few  copies 
escaping  the  fire. 

The  first  edition  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  and  the  surviving  copies 
of  the  Book  of  Commandments  are  rara  Americana,  and  command 
fabulous  prices. 

Doctrine  and  Covenants;  a  republication  of  the  revelations  con- 
tained in  the  Book  of  Commandments,  with  changes  and  additions; 
first  published  in  1835.     Subsequent  editions  have  appeared. 

Pearl  of  Great  Price;  the  last  "inspired"  book  put  forth  by  Joseph 
Smith,  containing  the  Book  of  Moses,  the  Book  of  Abraham  and  some 
of  the  writings  of  Joseph. 

The  Sacred  Books  of  the  Mormons  are: 

The  Bible,  King  James  Translation,     The  Book  of  Mormon, 
The  Doctrine  and  Covenants,  and    The  Pearl  of  Great  Price. 

48 


Stye  $\tml  Wnxb 

(J  This  pamphlet  has  not  only  a  message,  but  it 
is  an  appeal.  It  asks  to  be  sent  out,  to  be  sown 
broadcast,  dropping  down  into  hamlets  and  fund- 
ing its  way  into  homes,  where  it  is  not  expected. 
9  It  wants  to  be  made  a  part  of  the  Mission  Study 
Circle  of  the  Women,  to  supplement  Dr.  Kinney's 
Text-Book  for  the  year;  to  get  into  the  program  of 
Young  People's  Societies,  into  the  Studies  of  Min- 
isters and  all  Professional  Men,  and  to  find  its 
way  into  the  country,  wherever  the  Mormon 
Missionary  goes— which  is  almost  everywhere, 
fl  Subscribe  for  it;  persuade  others  to  subscribe; 
send  copies  to  your  friends  and  into  isolated  com- 
munities. Sow  Utah  with  them.  Keep  them 
moving  and  doing  good. 


TERMS:  Complete  Set  Ten  Numbers,  $1.00  One 
Copy,  15  Cents*  To  One  Address,  Four  Copies  50  Cents; 
Ten  Copies  $i.00. 


T"*HE  NEXT  NUMBER—; 

which  will  appear  Septem" 
her  1,  will  contain: 


1  A  Study  of  Joseph  Smitkj 
His  Heredity,  Environment  and; 
"Call"  to  tke  Office  of  a  Propket.; 

2  An  Analysis  of  the  Con- 
tents of  the  Book  of  Mormon. 

3  Its  Prokakle  Origin. 

Tkus  We  Will  Be  Getting 
Into  tke   Heart   of  tke  AiVork. 

Eames  Bros.,  Pointers,  Denver,  Colo. 


PHOTOMOUNT 
PAMPHLET  BINDER 

Manufactured  bu 

GAYLORD  BROS.  Inc. 

Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

Stockton,  Calif. 


DATE  DUE 

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GAYLORD 

PRINTED  IN  U.S.  A. 

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The  credentials  of  the  Book  of  Mormon 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


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